Between Comrades

China's Red Master Mao Tse-tung entered his seventh week as honored--or harried--guest in Moscow. The outside world could reasonably guess that his long stay cloaked 1) some grandiose planning for the next wave of Communist expansion in East Asia, or 2) some ruthless bullying and tortuous haggling over the price of comradeship.

From Paris, New York Times Correspondent Cyrus Sulzberger, without naming his sources, flatly reported that the Russians were demanding four far-reaching concessions:

P: Control of seven key ports in North China. With Anglo-U.S. blessing bestowed in Yalta's secret agreements, the Russians are already entrenched at Port Arthur and Dairen. In addition they want Chinwang-tao, Chefoo, Weihaiwei, Tsingtao and Haichow. They would thus be stationed from the Great Wall south along the Shantung Peninsula, threatening the U.S. position in Korea and Japan. P: More food from Manchuria to Russia, though much of China faces famine. P: A labor force of 500,000 Chinese to work on projects in the Soviet Union. P: More rights for non-Chinese minorities (Turkis, Mongols, Tibetans) in the border regions adjoining the U.S.S.R.

The Chinese, reported Sulzberger, were asking for almost $3 billion in financial aid and industrial equipment. They also wanted huge supplies of arms, primarily aircraft to use against Formosa.

If such haggling was really going on, it could be that Moscow had learned nothing in Yugoslavia and was rushing to create a greater Titoism in China. On the other hand, it could be that "Maoism" was in the making--a junior partnership for the Chinese in a joint Red drive toward Japan and Southeast Asia that would bring booty enough for all the comrades.

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