AMERICA AND CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 25324, 4 November 1944, Page 7

AMERICA AND CHINA

CHANGE IN PUBLIC OPINION CRITICISM OF BRITISH BURMA CAMPAIGN LIKELY TO CEASE WASHINGTON, November 2. ■ President Hoosevelt has directed Mr Donald Nelson 'to return to China' at the earliest possible moment. A White House statement said that, as the President's personal representative, Mr Nelson will continue his work with General Chiang Kai-shek on measures for, strengthening the Chinese war effort, and notably to organise the Chinese war production board to increase the output of China's war industries. Mr Nelson .will be accompanied by Mr' Howard Coonley as his deputy, Mr Eugene Stalling, an alcohol production expert,, and five steel experts. Chinese officials in tho United States are gloomy about the recall of General Stilwell. They believe that the United States War .Department will wipe off China as an effective force on the Burma front.

A growing body of opinion in the War Department believes that the war against the Japanese may be won without _ the co-operation of the Chinese 'armies. The Stilwell episode blows skyhigh American sentimentality about China. Repeated public opinion polls had shown China to be the American public's favourite ally. The debacle of Colonel Merril's Marauders in North, Burma and the growing scepticism about the internal condition in China increase the American public's belief that Japan must be defeated not on the Chinese mainland, but by planes and ships. The Americans will soon recognise the importance of the British operations in Burma. Lord Louis Mountbatten's South-east Asia Command has been heavily criticised in the American papers, and British troops were compared unfavourably with the Chinese. It is now expected that the criticism of the British efforts in Burma will cease.