New Premier

As his armies battled grimly forward in eastern China (see WORLD BATTLEFRONTS), Generalissimo Chiang Kai:shek streamlined his Government to keep political pace with them. In order to devote full time to his No. 1 job, strategy and the Army, he resigned his post as China's Premier. To succeed him, he appointed his brother-in-law, hustling, bustling, U.S.-trained Tse-veng Soong, who since last December has been Acting Premier. Simultaneously, another brother-in-law, H. H. Kung, also resigned as Vice President of the Executive Yuan. For some time, Kung has been seriously ill with kidney trouble, in the U.S. To succeed Kung, the Generalissimo appointed scholarly Dr. Wong Wen-hao, boss of China's WPB. Dr. Kung retained his post as the Generalissimo's personal representative to the President of the United States. Chiang Kaishek, his position buttressed by two popular appointments, remained as head of the Government.

The astute move cut two ways. The appointment of U.S.-educated T. V. Soong, who more than any other Chinese has in the past showed a grasp of Western methods, men and purposes, could scarcely fail to please the U.S. and simplify the task of Chiang's U.S. advisers, Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley and Lieut. General Albert C. Wedemeyer, Chief of the joint U.S.-Chinese General Staff.

The appointment might also do much to halt the deterioration of Sino-Russian relations. No longer could it convincingly be charged that, as Acting. Premier, T. V. Soong was merely a figurehead in the Chungking Government. As Premier, his rank would enable him to negotiate on an equal footing with Prime Minister Winston Churchill or Foreign Commissar Viacheslav Molotov (Soong is also China's Foreign Minister).

One Chinese official reported last week that Soong, fresh from his success as leader of China's delegation to the San Francisco conference, may stop off at Moscow, on his way back to Chungking, for a talk with Marshal Joseph Stalin. One probable subject of conversation: Chungking's (and Russia's) relations with the Chinese Communists at Yenan. A lessening of China's internal struggle would please practically everybody. But it seemed unlikely that Premier Soong, any more than Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek, would compromise on the basic issue which has shattered all efforts at agreement between the Communists and the Chinese Government--Yenan's insistence that it be permitted to maintain an independent army.

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