The Press SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1955. Overture to Peking Rejected

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27576, 5 February 1955, Page 6

The Press SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1955. Overture to Peking Rejected

Communist China’s refusal of the invitation to attend the Security Council’s discussion of the situation in the Formosa Strait is disappointing, and will be deeply regretted. Here was an opportunity for the Peking Government to ease tension in Asia, an opportunity for the Chinese Communists to demonstrate that their professions, so often and loudly reiterated, to be working for international goodwill were genuine and sincere. The way had been opened, with most careful regard for Chinese sensitiveness, for Communist China to join in calm discussion and investigation of the matters in dispute. The atmosphere was better than for many months. A new American policy had been enunciated; and the United States had taken the steps towards a moderate Asian policy that their friends had so often asked of them. The United States maintained that Formosa and the Pescadores are in possession of the Chinese Nationalists—as the peace treaty with Japan entitles them; it undertook to restrain the Chinese Nationalists from invasion of the mainland of China; it made no commitment about the off-shore islands, and clearly left the position of these islands open to discussion in the proposed armistice arrangements between Communist and Nationalist China. Indeed, a most propitious situation had been contrived into which the New Zealand resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Formosa Strait fitted comfortably and promisingly. But the Peking Government has bluntly rejected these conciliatory overtures, and in its rejection resorts again to charges of “ aggression ” against the United States which are untrue and which the people making them must know to be untrue. In the result, it is as difficult as ever to know what to do to improve relations with Communist China. Even Britain, which made a notably placatory gesture in recognising the Peking Government, has had bitter and disappointing experiences that belied China’s professed desires for good relations. The Chinese have conducted a hate campaign against the United States, and show no signs of relaxing it in the latest manifestations of. official opinion from Peking. Only the rulers in Peking know whether the Chinese Communists’ leaders seriously think of resorting to war in an attempt to gain possession of Formosa. The outside world recognises there are other possible explanations of Peking’s attitude. One is that Peking hopes, by playing on the Western nations’ deep anxiety for peace, to gain something that Peking is dubious about its chances of gaining in battle. Some think that Peking is carefully calculating the effects of the latest developments in American policy, which end the Nationalists’ dream of reconquering the mainland, on the morale of the Nationalist forces. Some believe that the Peking regime focuses attention on Formosa to distract attention from its internal difficulties. In a recently published thoughtful study of the new China the writer pointed to the government’s increasing use of “ appeals to “ fear and to sentiment rooted in “ nationalism as opposed to promises “of welfare and reform There is, happily, one consideration that makes a situation in which there is so much that is inexplicable and unknown less menacing than it might be. This is the abundant evidence of determination in the West to exercise restraint and to work patiently to try to stabilise the situation in the Formosa Strait. The Peking Government’s rejection of the United Nations’ invitation will confirm the belief of some in the West that conciliatory overtures to the Chinese Communists (as to other totalitarian regimes) produce only new and heavier demands. Against this there is the hope that in time even the Chinese Communists, dangerously ignorant of the realities of the outside world as they are, will learn that the castles of Western beliefs will not fall to screaming propaganda. The Communist Chinese have a very great deal to gain from a full and frank discussion of the questions in dispute before the United Nations, which in a sense is a court of world opinion as well as a mediating agency. They can only lose potential friends and sympathy by resorting to abuse and misrepresentation, and by obdurate refusal to see any point of view but their own. Peking has rejected a chance to end the tension in the Formosa Strait. Consequently, the area will continue to be the cause of deep international concern. The nations which genuinely desire peace and stability in the region have strengthened their moral standing by their efforts. It is the Peking regime which has shown itself uninterested in peace .and stability.