"We Must Begin Today"

Success was heady. In the tonic atmosphere of the victories it was easy for many people to forget the problems that were still unsolved. But voices soon reminded the people that the war and the peace were still enormously problematical. From India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachariar answered a condescending harangue of Winston Churchill. From England the Archbishop of Canterbury raised his voice against privilege. And from China, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek sent a compelling message this week to the New York Herald Tribune's forum on world affairs. Wrote the Gissimo:

"What we mean by Revolution is ... national independence, progressive realization of democracy and a rising level of living conditions for the masses. When victory comes at the end of this war, we shall have fully achieved national independence, but will have far to go to attain our other two objectives. . . .

"There will be neither peace, nor hope, nor future for any of us unless we honestly aim at political, social and economic justice for all peoples of the world, great and small. . . . We of the United Nations can achieve that aim only by starting at once to organize an international order, embracing all peoples, to enforce peace and justice among them. To make that start we must begin today, and not tomorrow, to apply these principles among ourselves, even at some sacrifice to the absolute powers of our individual countries... .

"Among our friends there has been recently some talk of China emerging as the leader of Asia, as if China wished the mantle of an unworthy Japan to fall upon her shoulders. Having herself been a victim of exploitation, China has infinite sympathy for the submerged nations of Asia, and toward them China feels she has only responsibilities--not rights. We repudiate the .idea of leadership of Asia because the 'Fiuehrer principle' has been synonymous with domination and exploitation, precisely as the 'East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere' has stood for a race of mythical supermen lording over groveling subject races."

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