Sinking Patient

China stirred fitfully, like a patient in a coma. The fever line of inflation shot upward--on the Shanghai bourse last week it took nearly 4,500,000 Chinese dollars to buy one U.S. dollar. The Chinese themselves were delighted when G.O.P. Nominee Tom Dewey promptly declared (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) that one of his first aims was to get "military advisers . . . material . . . far greater financial assistance" to China. But many feared the patient might be dead by Inauguration Day.

On the Doorstep. The Communists continued to slash at the arteries of China's economic life. Red General Chen Yi dashed from Shantung Province into the river valleys of neighboring Honan. Almost before Nationalists knew he was on the move, Chen's three columns converged on Honan's capital city of Kaifeng, garrisoned by a single government regiment.

In Nanking, the news brought a Honan delegation clamoring to the office of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. He told them: "Don't worry. Reinforcements are on the way. Kaifeng must be defended." That afternoon, the Reds breached Kaifeng's walls. The despairing Honan delegation camped for seven hours on Chiang's doorstep. They begged him to go in person to save the situation.

Next day, accompanied by Madame Chiang and with an air escort of fighters, the Gimo flew for a look at the Honan front. Over embattled Kaifeng, it was said, he talked by radio phone to the defenders.

Chiang flew on to Sian, summoned an emergency conference of his top military men. The entire Central China front hung in delicate balance. Any additional divisions the Gimo threw in to tip the scales would fatally weaken the sector from which they were withdrawn. His most dependable combat troops, the tough, hard-fighting veterans of General Fu Tso-yi, were already over-extended and outnumbered in the vital Peiping corridor.

While they talked, Kaifeng fell. Refugees reported the death of Honan's Governor Liu Mao-en. They added, bitterly, that a Nationalist air attack had killed more civilians than had the Communists.

Jubilant Chen Yi exchanged congratulatory telegrams with his Communist brother-in-arms, one-eyed General Liu Po-cheng. The two Red leaders agreed to join forces and carve out a "liberated" Central China state like the "North China Liberated Area" set up six weeks ago.

On the Wide Plains. At week's end, footslogging Nationalist reinforcements reached Kaifeng. They found the city neatly sacked. Chen Yi's men, loaded down with stores of gasoline, munitions and newly harvested winter wheat, had slipped away to the south.

Where was elusive Chen Yi headed? Weary Nationalists ticked off some of his possible alternatives. He could rendezvous with General Liu and then wheel on the pivotal railroad junction of Chengchow. Or he might plunge toward Suchow, bastion of the Nanking-Shanghai defense area. Or he could drive down to Hankow. He might even decide to stand and fight.

Nationalist commanders hoped for the last alternative. Having lost nearly one-third of China to the Communists' guerrilla tactics, they knew their only immediate chance of smashing the Reds would be in a big positional battle. This week they hoped that just such a battle might be shaping up below Kaifeng.

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