China and Her Allies

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23554, 4 February 1942, Page 4

China and Her Allies

The announcement that China is to

receive war equipment from Britain on a lease-lend basis and loans from Britain and the United States to a total of about £150,000,000 can be welcomed as an acknowledgement of the important part China is playing and can play in the war against Japan. It must be confessed that, since the spread of war to the Pacific, the attitude of the British and United States Governments to China has been somewhat offhand. The statement that the Chinese Government offered to send reinforcements to Malaya has been made on reasonably good authority and not denied. Some Chinese reinforcements have been sent to Burma, but statements by Chinese leaders suggest that many more could be sent if they were asked for. Though anti-Chinese feeling in many parts of south-east Asia puts some difficulties in the way of drafting large Chinese forces to this area, these difficulties seem unimportant in relation to the urgent need for trained manpower which now' faces the Allies. And although the Chinese forces offered may lack modern equipment, this weakness is more than compensated fbr by the fact that they have been seasoned by several years of fighting against the Japanese. This apparent reluctance to accept Crvnese military aid is matched by a similar reluctance to give the Chungking Government the place in the Allied war councils to which her long and successful resistance against Japan entitles h er - The net result of this seeming lukewarmness on the part of her allies has been to produce in China a mood of disillusionment and dissatisfaction which is in striking contrast to the first enthusiasm of the Chinese people when Japan provoked war with Britain and America. The Chungking Government, like the Australian Government, believes that the gravity and the importance of the Pacific war situation is not fully appreciated in London and Washington. When Colonel Knox said that Hitler was the main enemy, Chinese organisations in New York telegraphed to Mr Roosevelt warning him that “ the spirit of " deep dissatisfaction is growing in “China." Discrimination between enemies, it was asserted, "will bring " disunity into the ranks of the "Allies." At the same time official opinion in Chungking was reflected in a series of bitter newspaper attacks accusing Mi Roosevelt and Mr Churchill of concentrating on the destruction of Hitlerism in Europe and leaving China to carry the main burden of the war in the Far East. On January 18 Chungking's foreign minister came out into the open with a warning that if Britain and America intended to allow Japan free rein in the Far East while they defeated Hitler, " there was a grave “ doubt as to the wisdom of China "continuing to fight." The Japanese Government has not been slow I to grasp the opportunity presented

by this discord, and on January 24 General Tojo told the Diet that he had launched a strong peace move designed to detach China from the Anglo-Saxon Powers. He indicated that all past faults would be forgotten and Chungking received with open arms if only it “ rectifies its mistaken ideas.” The menace to the Allied cause latent in these developments need hardly be over-empha-sised. China is still immobilising a large part of Japan’s armed power; China's resistance makes it impossible'for Japan to win any decisive victory in south-east Asia; and China alone has the trained manpower necessary for the final overthrow of the Japanese military machine. It is tragic that, at a time when the essential identity of interests between China and the great democracies has never been more apparent, Chungking should be at cross purposes with London and Washington. These fresh promises of material and financial aid may do something to set matters right, A long time must elapse, however, before Britain will be able to send war equipment to China, since only a few days ago it was disclosed that United States equipment sent to Burma for delivery to China had been diverted to British use. What Chungking wants, it may be suspected, is not more promises and projects but some more practical recognition of the significant fact that she alone is at. present able to cope with Japanese aggression.