AMERICA AND CHINA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 70, 4 January 1950, Page 3

AMERICA AND CHINA

ALLEGED SECRET AGREEMENT NATIONALIST PLEA FOR ASSISTANCE (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) (Rec. 10.20.), WASHINGTON, Jan. 3. The Chinese Nationalists have submitted a new plea for American aid to help them save Formosa, the State Department disclosed to-day. A spokesman said that the Chinese Ambassador (Dr. Wellington Ivoo) had asked for military, political and economic advisers. Hp had also urged the Economic Co-operation Administration .to release the funds which were frozen last May when the Communists captured_Shanghai. The Department previously announced that only formal requests for aid could be considered and that none had been made. Reuter’s Hong Kong correspondent reported to-day that the new Qhina News Agency alleged that a secret agreement had been reached between the American Government and Chinese Nationalists on Formosa, signifying that the United States had decided on further aid to the Nationalists to resist the Communists and turn Formosa into a strategic base for “invading China’s mainland and opposing the peoples of Asia.”

' The agency said that the secret agreement stipulated that the United States would supply the Nationalists with 16 naval vessels, arms and equipment for five divisions, radar installations and aircraft spare parts. In return, the Nationalists would reform the Government, instal political and military administrators chosen by the United States, and admit a military mission whose advisers would take full charge of military and political affairs in Formosa. The agency also said that should the United States’ aid fail to halt the Communist advance, “American Imperialism” would occupy Formosa under the pretext of asking that the United Nations exercise trusteeship control over Formosa.

QUfeSTION OF INTERVENTION

SAVING OF FORMOSA FROM COMMUNISTS (N.Z.P. A.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, January 2. Mr Herbert Hoover, America’s . only living former. President, today proposed that the United States Navy should be sent to Formosa if necessary, to stop the Chinese Communists from seizing the island. “It is my strong belief that we should not recognise the Communist Government of China,” Mr Hoover said. “We must continue to recognise and support the Chinese Nationalist Government. “The United States should, if necessary, give its naval protection to the possessions of Formosa the Pescadores, and possibly Hainan Island.” Mr Hoover said it was essential for the United States—(l) to build a Avail against Communism in the Pacific; (2) to safeguard Japan and the Philippines from Communism; and (3) to prevent Communist China from becoming a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, “with its dangerous implications to that body; and (4) to a\ r oid the dangers of the Chinese Communists helping to formulate the Japanese peace treaty. Senator Taft’s Opinion Senator Robert Taft, an influential Ohio Republican, who is strongly tipped as a Presidential candidate for the 1952 election, also said to-day that the United States should not allow Formosa to fall to the -Communists. He said the United States should safeguard the island either by supporting the Chinese Nationalists or by direct intervention. Senator Taft said he Avould prefer action by the United Nations, ,but, failing that, the United States should take the initiative in holding Formosa by using the American Navy. Senator Taft added however, that the- United States should support the Nationalists only if it thought the Nationalists were strong enough to "hold Formosa. “We do not want to give aid to the Nationalists unless they can make effective use of it,” he said. “We are primarily interested in preventing the spread of Communism.”

Claims for Aid Plan

The proposers say that the plan has the following advantages: the “showing of the flag” by the United States might deter a Communist: assault: it would serve to convince other Asian nations that the United States was not unmindful of the Communist threat; it would answer the criticisms of the Republicans in Washington that the Administration was following a “donothing” policy; and it would not impinge on the sovereignty of the Chinese Nationalists.

A mixed reception greeted the plan to supply arms to the Chinese Nationalists in Formosa in exchange for American bases there. A Defence Department spokesman told a Reuter correspondent. that the report was “purely speculative,” but he declined to amplify his comment. Senator William Knowland, who has been active in urging full. United States aid for the Nationalists, rejected such a plan, because, lie said, it would discriminate against the Nationalists. He said he did not know where the report about, the plan had originated, but he could see no reason why the United States should ask for bases in return for aid.

Senator Knowland added that the Nationalists, with Congressional approval, were entitled to military help on the same basis as the Atlantic Pact countries.

Democratic Party leaders were not available for comment.

British Overseas Airways Corporation.—The British Overseas Airways Corporation announced to-day that in 1949 its aircraft carried 150.000 passengers, an increase of 30,000 on the number carried in 1948. During the year the corporation’s aircraft flow 400,000000 miles.—London, Jan. 2.