High Wind in Tihwa

Lost from sight in deepest Siberia for three weeks, Henry Wallace flew into Tihwa in a high wind of publicity.

Tihwa (pop. 50,000), the capital of Sinkiang Province, turned out thousands of Chinese, Mohammedans, Uigurs, Uzbeks, Kazaks and Kueihuas to greet the highest U.S. official who had ever visited that dot in vast Chinese Turkestan. In preparation for the great day, the Governor,General Sheng Shih-tsai, laid in a fresh supply of toothbrushes, tongue-scrapers, and ear-cleaners, had the columns of his house freshly painted, took a U.S. Embassy attache down a flight of stairs to show him the only flush toilet in all Sinkiang (600,000 sq. mi.). Proudly Governor Sheng pulled the chain. It worked.

For dinner that evening Henry Wallace had his choice of great stacks of duck, eggplant, cheese, tinned crabmeat, smoked salmon, salami, sausages, cucumbers, cantaloupe, ice cream, Russian chocolates, port wine or brandy. The General gave the Vice President two brightly colored Sinkiang rings, one for himself and one for Franklin Roosevelt. In turn Henry Wallace produced a luscious rarity for the Governor's wife: fat strawberries from Alma Ata, Siberia. After two days he was off on the 1,500-mile trip to the key stop of his swing around Asia.

Alighting from the plane in Chungking, panama in hand, he shook hands with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and a battery of China's top diplomats. Then he was led to the 1939 Cadillac where Mme. Chiang awaited him. On the way to the car, a white-gloved brass band struck up The Star-Spangled Banner. The Gissimo, preceding Henry Wallace, kept right on walking. A military aide rushed up, whispered in the Gissimo's ear. The Gissimo continued toward the car. The aide tried again. This time the Gissimo heard, came stiffly to attention while the band finished the last strains of the U.S. anthem. Newsmen were handed a mimeographed statement: Mr. Wallace hoped the long (and disputable) Sino-Soviet border would be as peaceful as the U.S.-Canadian boundary.

Bright & early next morning, wearing two wrist watches (one set at Chungking time, the other at American E.W.T.), he turned up at the Red Cross Club, known to G.I.s in China as the "Java Dive." Staring at the unmistakable U.S. trappings, Henry Wallace said: "You've certainly created America here. It's swell." Then he stripped down to the waist for a volleyball game between officers and enlisted men, played in a drenching rain. Wallace teamed up with the G.I.s, fell flat on the muddy cement court.

The New Dealer. Next day Henry Wallace pulled on black rubbers and sloshed happily about the water-soaked rice fields 50 miles outside Chungking. Avidly he discussed new strains of disease-resistant rice, the intricacies of upping rice production. He also heard a polite suggestion by Agriculture Minister H. L. Shen that he be made "Agricultural Minister for the World."

Henry Wallace responded by telling the Chinese agriculturalists that they, too, had a New Dealer, although he has been dead for nearly 900 years. The New Dealer: Wang An-Shih (1021-86), a famed economist who became Premier under Emperor Shen Tsung, put into effect Government farm loans, Government control of all commerce, and an income tax. Glowingly Henry Wallace likened New Dealer Wang An-Shih to Dr. New Deal Franklin Roosevelt. He added: "China today is guided by the mature wisdom of President. Chiang. Under the New Deal that is to begin with the calling of the constitutional convention, China can, if she will, do in 15 years what it took the U.S. 40 years to do--increase her agricultural efficiency by 50%."

America Is Promises. High point of the visit was a formal dinner tendered by the Chiangs at the Presidential villa. After toasts to victory drunk with Shao-hsin (an amber-colored wine), Henry Wallace said: "In Asia there are political and racial entities now in a state of colonial dependency whose aspirations to self-government should receive prompt and positive attention after victory."

Henry Wallace had come to China bearing many gifts (among them: 43 kinds of grass seed, machine tools, technical data on how to build a community icebox, the score of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue). But U.S. correspondents got no chance to ask the Vice President just what his business was in China. The Chinese press wondered, too.

After five days of conferences between the Vice President and the Generalissimo, they issued a joint statement that gave some inkling of what they had been talking about. The statement called for: 1) all possible U.S.-China cooperation in defeating Japan, continuance of the Big Four in solving postwar Asiatic problems; 2) "the effective, permanent demilitarization" of Japan; 3) recognition of the right of colonial Asiatic peoples to self-government, "within a specified, practical time limit." The joint statement said nothing about the desperate need of immediate and direct U.S. financial and military aid for China.

Then Henry Wallace prepared to leave Chungking. He has a date with his future at the Democratic Convention on July 19.

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