Embarrassment of a Confucian

Ch'en Li-fu, China's frail and handsome Minister of Education, won a great victory last October. He succeeded in extending his dictatorship over China's thinkers as far as the U.S. In a new set of rules his Ministry declared that a bureau to "guide and control thought and conduct" of private Chinese students studying abroad would be set up in each foreign country. To these thought controllers the students would have to give unconditional obedience and "the moment facts are substantiated and reported to the Ministry that their speech or writing is contrary to the teachings of the Three People's Principles* . . . they will be sent back to China." In February similar regulations were drafted for professors and instructors going abroad.

All might have gone well had not the regulations a fortnight ago come to the attention of Harvard Philosopher Ralph Barton Perry. As leader of Harvard's American Defense Faculty Group, Perry asked the State Department to investigate and, if it found the regulations as sinister as they appeared, to bar all Chinese students from America. Perry scrupulously avoided mentioning the similarity, shocking to all American educators, between these rules and the Japanese system of thought control.

How to Eat Soup. Last week at Chung-king's foreign press conference, the Chinese Government, stung by the Perry incident and a scorching New York Times editorial, made reply. Spokesman was the ablest of China's three governmental mouthpieces--young Dr. P. H. Chang, who speaks for the cabinet. Dr. Chang blithely kissed off the controversy as a misunderstanding. A poor translation had made the regulations read as if the supervisors were "to guide and control thought and conduct"; actually the correct translation was "to guide the thoughts and control the actions of students abroad." As for the training a student had to receive before going abroad--that was simply to teach him "how to eat soup, not to put his knife in his mouth, or to put salt in his coffee."

Less comforting, however, was the formal statement issued by Ch'en Li-fu to the press: "The Chinese provisional constitution provides that the Three People's Principles shall be the basic educational principles of the Republic of China; just as democracy is the basic principle of America's education and should not be contravened. Any Chinese who violates the Three People's Principles violates common interests in the war of defense, students being no exception."

These were interesting words. No one knew what they meant in practice, but in Chungking and the U.S. alike observers were prepared to apply to Ch'en Li-fu the maxim of his great mentor, Confucius: "Listen to men's words, but watch what they do."

These Principles Principles--nationalism, democracy and livelihood--were laid down by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1924 as the theoretical basis for reconstruction of China. They are the cardinal articles of faith of the Nationalist Party.

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