Pigeonhole for China

Lieutenant General Albert Wedemeyer returned from China a month ago with an official report on China's predicament and needs. The report, circulated among Washington officials, urgently recommended:

P: Financial and military aid for China within the next 60 days; otherwise the Nanking Government might well lose Manchuria to the Chinese Communists (see FOREIGN NEWS).

P: Additional long-term grants running close to $1 billion to bolster China's economy; otherwise the disintegration of China might become so rapid that the U.S. would have to abandon that political beachhead in Asia.

The report was kept locked up while State Department officials brooded over it. Last week, Under Secretary of State Robert Lovett said that the report would not be made public. He gave no reason, but Washington newsmen learned that the decision not to publish the report had been made by Secretary of State George Marshall. Marshall, it was said, had not yet fully subscribed to the report's conclusions and recommendations. He believed that publication at this time would only fan the fires of U.S.-Soviet conflict. And he was afraid that publication would jeopardize congressional approval of European aid, which, in George Marshall's diplomatic strategy, has priority. In short, Asia must wait.

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