Light on Asia

China's Prime Minister T. V. Soong last week flew to Washington from Moscow, met his daughter, Laurette, and got down to China's business with U.S. officialdom.

An important chunk of that business was Mr. Soong's brand-new, still secret treaty with Soviet Russia (see FOREIGN NEWS). On its content and origins, Prime Minister Soong was mum. But Washington buzzed with accounts which threw the clearest light yet on the nature and purpose of official U.S. policy in Asia. The gist:

President Roosevelt laid the policy's foundation before and at Yalta; President Truman carried on at Potsdam. The salient, underlying factor was Roosevelt's belief that: 1) China was the U.S.'s natural ally in Asia; 2) in her present and probable postwar weakness, China alone could not be relied on to withstand Russia's inroads. Roosevelt therefore reasoned that his only recourse was an attempt to build at least a temporary bridge of understanding between China and Russia, and hope that political or other conflict could be postponed during China's recovery. Soong's agreement with Molotov and Stalin reduced the principle--and the hope--to writing.

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