Truce

The truce between the National Government and the Communists was not the millennium; the road ahead was rocky with grave issues. But not since V-J day had China's prospects seemed so good.

The trucemakers--Government General Chang Chun, Communist General Chou Enlai, U.S. General of the Army George Catlett Marshall--had agreed on three points: 1) all hostilities would cease immediately; 2) all troop movements would also cease, except in Manchuria and south of the Yangtze, where Government sovereignty is unchallenged; 3) all lines of communications would be cleared. A commission composed of Government, Communist and U.S. representatives promptly left for Peiping to execute the agreement.

Global Merit. For the trucemakers, and for China, it had been a touch-&-go week. Their talks opened at General Marshall's residence, the Yu Gardens, also wryly known as Failure House because it had lodged other, unsuccessful U.S. missions.

For two days things went with unexpected smoothness. Then, suddenly, the road got bumpy. General Chang insisted that the Government must occupy Communist-claimed Jehol and Chahar provinces, on the flank of the overland route between North China and Manchuria. General Chou sharply dissented. Plainly upset, he stalked out. "Regrettable!" he muttered.

Late that evening, General Marshall called on Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. For two hours they conferred. The Generalissimo's decision: the Government was strong enough to yield on the issue of Jehol and Chahar.

Next morning the truce was drafted. From the rostrum of the opening session of the Political Consultation Conference, the Generalissimo proclaimed the news amid a thunder of applause. Cried Chungking's Ta Kung Pao: "General Marshall . . . has achieved merit of global proportions. . . ."

Democratic Rights. The Political Consultation Conference, set up last fall by Generalissimo Chiang and Communist Chairman Mao Tse-tung to work out China's political unity, thus began its task under favorable auspices. Besides the truce, the P.C.C. heard other important news from the Generalissimo. The Government was taking steps to insure democratic civil rights, promote local self-government, curb the secret police, grant equality to "all legal parties," release all political prisoners except "traitors" and those guilty of "injurious acts against the Republic."

Next day scholarly Dr. Sun Fo, president of the Legislative Yuan, made public the Government's plan for broadening its base. The State Council would be revived to become the top governing body. Non-Kuomintang members would be given seats; in effect, the Council would be a coalition, with the Kuomintang holding a dominant position.

The P.C.C.'s Communist and other minority spokesmen gave qualified approval to the Government program. If the conferees could now solve the problem of nationalizing the Communist armies, China would indeed have turned the corner.

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