Currie in China

WAR & PEACE

On a vast level stretch of Chinese earth, near the city of Chengtu. 75,000 men were working. The Chinese were building an air field. There was not a piece of power-driven machinery in sight. Huge gangs of coolies pulled stone rollers that weighed seven to eight tons apiece. The first of three layers of stone had been put down for a foundation, and the stone was broken by man power: 30,000 hammers wielded by 30,000 men. The enormous field, the throng of sweating, straining workmen, were watched by a short, grey, bespectacled economist, wearing a tweed overcoat, an expression of awe on a face ordinarily expressionless. He was Lauchlin Currie, President Roosevelt's administrative assistant, sent on a fact-finding trip to China. Watching the mass of labor, Lauchlin Currie observed that the building of the pyramids must have looked like this. But in Chiang Kai-shek's China there was no slave driver with a lash. The job was bossed by a Chinese civil engineer (a graduate of the University of Illinois) who directed the 75,000 by blowing a whistle.

Last week Lauchlin Currie, back in Washington, was still at work on his report to President Roosevelt. The most retiring of the President's "anonymous" assistants, he would not say a word about his trip. But from Chungking bits of news about it came in as fast as the Clippers could fly the Pacific. There was no question about the effect on China of Lauchlin Currie's visit: Chinese thought it was wonderful. The Chinese had been heartened by this sign of U. S. interest, had given the President's emissary all honors and all opportunities, had made no secret of China's dependence on U. S. aid.

Chinese say that when the three Soong sisters, who do not agree about politics, finally come together, it means big news, either good or bad. All three -- Mesdames Chiang Kaishek. H. H. Kung, Sun Yat-sen -- were in Hong Kong to welcome Currie, and give him, after an 11,183 -mile flight, a "washing dust" reception -- a most courteous ceremony, reserved for distinguished visitors who are theoretically tired and dusty after a long journey. Thereafter, honors and interviews; two weekends with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek at his mountain hideaway; inspection of an aviation training school, where a Chinese band ground out The Star-Spangled Banner] a review of 1,000 cadets at China's West Point; talks with the Foreign Minister, the Finance Minister, innumerable experts.

Currie lived in a house provided by the Government, had 13 servants. He learned to like sharks' fin. He met people he knew: when he stepped off the plane at Chungking a young Chinese with a Boston accent wagered that Dr. Currie did not remember him. Said Currie: "You took my course in banking at Harvard." But what Currie thought of Chinese conditions and possible U. S. aid was locked up in his head and in the brief case that he always kept at his side. There were mighty problems on which observers of China must make decisions: the seriousness of recurring Communist disputes; the increase in the circulation of paper money; hoarding and speculation in rice; the letdown in morale that accompanies a military stalemate.

Chinese watched anxiously for some indication of the effect of China on Lauchlin Currie. The homeward-bound plane took off without his giving a sign. Currie worked as the Clipper flew the Pacific, conferred with his assistant Emile Despres, had little to say to other passengers. One effect of his Chinese trip was plain: he no longer minded flying. Years ago he was watching a stunting plane when it collapsed in mid-air and two bodies smashed into the ground a bare 25 feet from where he stood. A couple of flights to Montreal left him jittery. But long before his 26,416 -mile Washington-to-Chungking round trip was completed, his air shock was cured.

From his exotic house on the Kialing River to his old house in Georgetown, where books and papers line the walls and his children's roller skates stand just inside the door, Currie moved like a traveler from one economic age to another. Not a hint of his conclusions reached the press. But in his speech at the White House Correspondents' dinner last week, President Roosevelt made it plain that his latest report from China was hopeful. He said: "China . . . expresses the magnificent will of millions of plain people to resist the dismemberment of their historic nation. China, through the Generalissimo, Chiang Kaishek, asks our help. America has said that China shall have our help."

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