REPORT ON CHINA

Chinese Communists were still entrenched last week along the Great Wall, barring the advance of Central Government troops into Manchuria. U.S. marines stood within earshot of the crump of mortars and the boom of artillery. U.S. warships, under Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey, refused to risk a landing of Government troops in Manchuria's Communist-held ports; the Admiral warned both Communists, and Nationalists that Manchuria might be lost in the squabble and emerge as an "independent state" like Outer Mongolia.

Under strict orders to stay out of China's still-limited civil war, the Americans were the targets of fierce Communist complaints that they were practicing "armed intervention." From beautiful Peiping, in the heart of embattled North China, TIME Correspondent William Gray cabled a survey of the U.S. dilemma and China's plight:

The acacia-shaded street beneath my window in Peiping's Grand Hotel des Wagons-Lits echoes the cymbal-clashing and drumbeats of a parade of Chinese dancers noisily celebrating the i yoth birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. In the hotel lobby a Chinese bride & groom have just posed for wedding pictures in the Chinese fashion: five austere black-gowned male relatives held the center of the portrait; the pretty bride in her white gown and the groom in his new black suit and wing collar were in the background.

Peace & War. These are things that go with peace. Everywhere within Peiping's ancient walls peace is far more apparent than war. The late autumn countryside around Peiping is beautiful and calm; life seems to move at the speed of a farmer's donkey cart. But you will hunt far this week to find the expectation of peace in China.

In a Peiping restaurant one day this week the proprietor, a serene, middle-aged Chinese named Mr. Chang, sat down at our table and talked of China's need and longing for peace after its years of war. Then he said: "I think we will have civil war. I think it is God's opinion."

Plans & Men. In Mr. Chang's opinion, there is still one way for China to have peace: "It depends on how much you Americans help us. It depends on whether you give us the supplies we need." Mr. Chang does not expect that the U.S. will give China's Central Government all it needs to subdue the Communists militarily. Neither do U.S. military men in China. They expect to duck out as quickly as possible and go home. If they do, the U.S. must admit a great failure.

Nobody planned, in August or September, that things would happen this way in China in November. The world's most powerful nation was not then ready to plan the peace of the most populous. We acted on hope and in furtherance of Japanese dis armament. Now Americans may duck out, but the U.S. has gone too deeply into the China affair to duck all responsibility for what may ensue. If all-out civil war develops, our moral position may be more uncomfortable than it is now.

In hoping that we could foster peace by redeploying the Government armies where they could command peace, we neglected to consider the consequences of failure. We pursued a policy of optimism based on Chungking's hope that the Stalin-Soong agreement would quiet China's Communists and that there would be no fighting. Now we are confronted with the ugly fact of civil war.

We have put Chiang's key armies in the ring with U.S. weapons which use U.S. ammunition. The supply of ammunition is not inexhaustible. To make their handsome weapons work, we must continue to supply the U.S. ammunition. Otherwise we take the responsibility for stranding them without ammunition and letting the Communists mow them down, with weapons taken from the Japanese.

We have also assumed a certain responsibility for China's economic order. We can hardly desert the job gracefully and with credit until we are sure some order will go on.

When the U.S. commander in China, Lieut. General Albert C. Wede-meyer, returned from the U.S., he came direct to Peiping. He talked earnestly with top U.S. officers in China, reportedly advised Washington to withdraw U.S. marines gradually (in about three months). But some Americans in China would risk a stronger U.S. policy and go all-out to insure China's peace by supporting Chiang's Government, imperfect as it is.

Most Americans in China, being civilians in uniform, are ready to go home, and the hell with it. They believe that they accurately reflect public opinion at home.

And that, in Mr. Chang's words, would leave China to God's opinion.

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