Who's Corrupt?

Even such old friends of the Chinese Nationalists as Congressman Walter Judd and Senator William Knowland were shaken last August by a new outcry of corruption against the Chiang Kai-shek government. The attack came from two officers serving with the Chinese Air Force Mission in Washington--Lieut. General P. T. Mow and his chief aide, Colonel V. S. Hsiang. Their superiors in Formosa had asked them to account for $19 million entrusted to them for military procurement. Publicly refusing to do so, they declared that they were being persecuted by Nationalist thugs and thieves. Somehow, their version of the dispute, vague but voluble, made frontpage news.

The Formosa government brought civil suit in the federal district court in Washington to compel Mow to account for the millions put into his hands, and to return any money still left (the Nationalists thought there ought to be $7,000,000). Mow retained as his attorney Colonel William A. Roberts, a Washington lawyer who fed a steady stream of "news" to reporters; the newsmen apparently hardly paused to ask whether Mow and Hsiang were really the victims and opponents of corruption they claimed to be. Over Roberts' objections the district court insisted that it had jurisdiction, ordered plaintiff and defendant to appear to tell what he knew about the money.

About the Money. At that point (beginning in January) Mow and Hsiang began to act like men afraid to test their case before a judge. The court managed to get its hands on only $614,000 of the $7,000,000 or so which Mow presumably still controls. Mow quietly took a powder: on Jan. 23, then on Feb. 8, he failed to appear for deposition. He went to Mexico City instead. Hsiang also absented himself from Washington. Last week, to Attorney Roberts' embarrassment, came news from Hong Kong: Hsiang's family had gone from San Francisco to Shanghai on the Communist mainland.

This week, with the two officers still absent, the district court handed down a judgment by default against Mow.

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