A Little Progress

Tired Chungking shook off winter's grey chill, admired the flowering plum and magnolia trees, found comfort in the promise of spring. In her eighth springtime of war, China was bearing an accumulated burden of inflation, hunger, disease, political disunity and military retreat. But somehow the nation was still holding together, and the Government of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek had come back--a little way--from last fall's near-collapse.

Toward Victory. A great gap had been torn in the Jap blockade. Supplies, flowing up the Ledo-Burma Road, were revitalizing Chungking's ragged riflemen. Not even the Jap capture of Laohokow and its U.S. air base (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS) could hide the overall fact that China's armed strength was increasing.

Toward Democracy. The Generalissimo was following up his historic New Year's pledge to lead China toward democracy and constitutional government. Last week his Government announced its delegation to the San Francisco security conference. Of ten delegates, only four, including Acting Premier T. V. Soong, were members of China's dominant Kuomintang. The remainder represented minority parties (including the Communists), independent liberals and intellectuals.

In selecting the delegation the Generalissimo apparently had cupped an ear toward friends and advisers in the U.S.A significant part of the credit for better U.S.-Chinese relations was given to shrewd, big-hearted Major General Patrick J. Hurley, now Ambassador to China. Last week he was in Washington, making his last rounds on U.S.-Chinese business before returning to Chungking, and from his pep talks it seemed clear that the U.S. had made up its mind to give genuine support to the Generalissimo's Government. The Generalissimo, in turn, had heartened his American friends with a quiet profession: "If I die a dictator, I shall go down to oblivion as all other dictators have gone. But if before I die I manage to give back power to the people, I shall be remembered in every Chinese home. . . ."

Toward Stability. Last week, too, a new attack opened on China's desperate economic front. One evening a silvery Douglas transport came down at a Chungking airfield. Out stepped its chief passenger, the Generalissimo, and a bulky hitchhiker, onetime OPA Boss Leon Henderson. The American, en route from Europe, had met the Generalissimo by chance in Kunming. But he was no chance visitor. The Generalissimo had asked him to study China's agonizing inflation.

Next day Leon Henderson plunged into the job. At a twelve-hour-a-day pace he conferred with Chinese experts, with American production men. Long into the night he pored over price and commodity charts. What he read was staggering.

Since the New Year, China's general price index had more than doubled. It stood approximately at 1,400 times the prewar level. In plain people's terms, one egg now cost 30 Chinese dollars, one pound of chicken $400, one man's suit (foreign style) $35,000.

Leon Henderson probably would recommend more U.S. aid (civilian supplies. gold bullion) to bolster China's economy. Even if his counsel brought China scant immediate relief, it was another sign that hope had replaced despair.

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