Angry Asia

BETWEEN TEARS AND LAUGHTER -- Lin Yufang--John Day ($2.50).

Lin Yutang wrote this book after Frank lin Roosevelt had metaphorically slapped the face of China asking for war aid. The President told Congress in his annual mes sage last January: "Even today we are flying as much Lend-Lease material into China as ever traversed the Burma Road." Says Lin Yutang: "I knew the exact ton nage being flown in, which no official has dared to make public. ..." For nights Dr. Lin lay awake "thinking, thinking, thinking of how to break the solid wall of the Washington blockade of supplies for China." This book is a small but potent charge of moral and political explosive laid under this new, hateful Great Wall of China.

Dr. Lin charges that China's face has been slapped repeatedly.

>When in 1941 President Roosevelt "with evident satisfaction" called the U.S. policy of shipping scrap iron and oil to Japan a "success."

>When the British Government closed the Burma Road.

>When General Wavell, during the Burma campaign of 1942, confiscated Lend-Lease supplies on their way to China.

>When the Chinese military mission spent eight months in Washington and was not once consulted (TIME, Jan. 11).

Two Convictions. No one likes to be slapped and Lin Yutang has lost considerable composure, as the title of his book indicates. The series of slaps fixed two convictions firmly in his mind.

1) "Under whatever semblance or form of World Federation may be established [after the war], China will never, judging from her present experiences during the war, be accorded true equality, because she is Asiatic." 2) A mystic belief that Asia will come into its own. "I saw China growing strong, and Russia growing stronger, and all Asia growing strong. I know that this nation of 450,000,000 people, united and awakened and purged by the war-fire, is coming up; the strength lies in her and nothing the western nations can do can stop her or keep her down." One Issue. Two Leaders. Dr. Lin sees in this war only one issue, "Empire versus freedom." He sees two world leaders rep resenting opposite sides of this issue --"Chiang Kaishek, for whom 'patriotism is not enough,' and Winston Churchill, for whom it is." Says Dr. Lin : "The issue of empire versus freedom is dividing us.

While the war is on, we should hold the issues in abeyance to the extent of not letting them deter our common war efforts. . . . [But] the seeds of disunity are already there. ... If the war does not break us, the peace may. For it is absolutely certain that there will be no peace without collective security, and no collective security without American collaboration in the postwar world. . . . Psychologically, present-day Americans are more ready to renounce isolationism than certain Europeans are ready to renounce the politics of power and imperialism. Both must be renounced at the same time; otherwise Europe is merely asking American collaboration in European imperialism."

"Europe . . . still thinks that the world owes Europe a debt, and that the world has to come up to European standards of living. Europe, I know, still intends to appropriate the world. There are the British Empire, the French Empire, and the Dutch Empire. Even Portugal has got a concession, Macao, in China!"

One Quart of Milk. "What," asks Dr. Lin, "are you going to Europeanize the world with? The European standards of living, of course. Curious that one does not say the standards of morals. . . . When one speaks of raising the standards of living, one means clearly and simply that laundry will be more pleasant, and dishwashing and vacuum-cleaning will be easier on the housewife, plus perhaps a quart of milk a day for the Hottentot. One means less hand labor. One means having a car and seeing a movie once a week. . . .

"Did the Barretts of Wimpole Street have enamel bathtubs? Did Dr. Johnson ever use a flush toilet or have any idea of a sanitary latrine? Did Charles Dickens ever hear a radio? Did Goethe ever handle a camera? . . . Did Charles Lamb ever see Ginger Rogers or use a plastic toothbrush? Did Wordsworth ever cross in the Hudson Tunnel or drive on the Merritt Parkway? . . . Why must we be the mirror to the universe? Where are the standards? The invalid assumptions must fall away, and some common standard for all humanity must be rediscovered."

Human Traits. Dr. Lin finds the clue to such a common standard in the old Chinese philosopher, Mencius (372-289 B.C.), who taught that four human traits are common to all men: 1) a heart of mercy; 2) a sense of shame; 3) a sense of courtesy and respect; 4) a sense of right & wrong.

But Mencius' partial answer to the questions this book raises is of less political interest than Dr. Lin's fierce indictment of the western world and the shortcomings and plans of the United Nations with respect to Asia', and especially China. Little that Lin says has not been said more calmly and more carefully already by thoughtful, worried Americans and Europeans.

Dr. Lin's little book and Dr. Lin's stridency may be overlooked with the same polite complacency with which China is often overlooked among the United Nations. But, if the mistakes of her allies anger China as they have angered Dr. Lin--if now or later they warp China out of the democratic line-up--the things that Dr. Lin complains of will be very serious indeed.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.