MAO SPEAKS
IT is a rare privilege to meet Mao Tse-tung and this has now been bestowed, one may be sure not carelessly, upon the British Labour Delegation in Peking. On this occasion,. the Chinese President made four proposals: that the United States should withdraw its Seventh Fleet from Chinese territorial waters; that the United States should cease to require the rearmament of Germany and of japan: and that the British delegation should recognise as its true function the urging of a `more reasonable foreign policy' on the West.
It. would be a mistake to think that, because these proposals Were made to the unofficial delegation of a party in opposition, they are not important. It is good Communist practice to address oneself to the parties of the left in the first instance. because it is with the non-Communist left, so the doctrine goes, that.Communism must compete for the people's favour. It would be equally wrong to suppose that because Mao's pro- posals sound superficially preposterous, they will not have a Wide appeal. It is not only in India, but in Western countries as well, that a body of well-educated opinion believes that china is activated primarily by fear, that it wishes to create neutral zones around its legitimate historical frontiers and to restore, peacefully if it is allowed, its ancient and proper position of predominance in Asia. Finally, China and the Chinese exercise an immense attraction on Europeans, and Particularly on Englishmen, which makes preposterous pro- Posals from Peking sound far more persuasive than the same Preposterous proposals from Moscow.
There is some reason to suppose that Mr. Attlee himself is not predisposed to be persuaded. For Mr. Attlee can read, as Well as the next man, what Mr. Dulles has said about America's intention to defend not only Formosa but also the Pecadores Islands with the Seventh Fleet. Mr. Attlee is also likely to realise that the British policy of trying to save Asia through negotiation has a chance to work just so long as the United States remains present in force in the Far East. Mr. Attlee knows that though this is not a comfortable situation, it is one which must continue indefinitely. The hope must be that Mr. Attlee can convey what he knows to his co-delegates in time to prevent them doing a great deal of damage when they return to this country. For this is not the last we will hear of Mt° Tse-tung's proposals for peaceful co-existence.
Previous page
