Towards Peace in China
Among the Chinese people the desire for peace at any price is now universally manifest, and Kuomintang leadership is giving way to the inevitable like a cumbrous and intricate log-jam slowly disintegrating under the increasing pressure of the stream. Circum- stantial rumours of the Generalissimo's impending withdrawal from the scene are unlikely to be groundless, and a mixture of chaos and apathy characterise the situation in his capital. An article on another page gives a vivid impression of the feverish economic nightmare which, thanks to Nanking's mismanagement, dominates the life of all classes in the big cities ; for those in the frying-pan the fire has lost its terrors. The Nationalist Government is. understood to have asked the Governments of Great Britain, America, France and Russia to act as intermediaries in bringing about peace, and although this demarche may yield no practical results—if only because the first three Powers have at present no effective means of communica- tion with Mao Tse-Tung—it shows a praiseworthy desire on the part of the Chinese to speed up the formalities of face-saving. The immediate objective now should be to stop the fighting and restore some sort of order and security over those large areas affected by the civil war and its aftermath in time for the spring sowing to be carried out ; famine, the jackal of war, is always round the corner in China. One of the first problems the Communists will have to tackle is that of establishing relationships with the outside world, and that is a matter in which our own country, both in its own interests and in those of the Chinese people, should accept any opportunity that may offer to play its part. The destinies of China have passed-many times into the hands of revolutionaries, and nothing has ever been gained by treating them for a probationary period as untouchable bandits.
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