Oil for the Jets of China

The order flashed from Washington to U.S. embassies halfway around the world: stop the Wiima. A grimy Finnish tanker loaded at the Rumanian oil port of Constantsa the Wiima was en route for Red China with 7,000 tons of aviation kerosene--enough fuel to give Communist MIG jets over 5,000 flying hours.

Asking Red Rumania to halt the Wiima at dockside was pointless. So the U.S. turned to Finland, whose government dislikes Communism but fears to show it too openly. The Finns bravely promised that no more fuel oil will be shipped to Red China in Finnish bottoms, but they couldn't stop the Wiima: she is immune from government interference while on the high seas.

The U.S. tried Turkey, hoping to catch the Wiima as she passed through the Dardanelles. But the Turks, whose 4,000-man brigade in Korea has suffered heavy casualties at the hands of the Chinese Reds, could not help either. An international convention guarantees free transit. At Suez it was the same: Britons and Egyptians watched but did nothing as the tanker slipped away. This week, the Wiima was halfway across the Indian Ocean, on course for the China coast. The only remaining chance of stopping her legally lay with Nationalist China's navy, which claims to be blockading the Communist mainland. But old China hands doubt that the tanker can be stopped unless U.S. Seventh Fleet airplanes join in the search. The Wiima can too easily stay out of range of Nationalist air patrols by hugging the mainland coast.

What Is Strategic? She would not be the first to do it. Seaborne trade between Communist China and the rest of the world still nourishes. In the first ten months of 1952, some 800 cargo-carrying vessels reached Red Chinese ports. Total Chinese imports from the non-Communist world last year: about $250 million.

On May 18, 1951, 47 U.N. member nations solemnly agreed to prohibit the export of strategic materials to Chinese mainland ports. The catch is in the meaning of "strategic." The U.S. regards all materials shipped to China as useful to the enemy, and therefore strategic; others, still clinging to the moneymaking proposition that China is "the land of 400 million customers," are much less thoroughgoing. Britain embargoes "military" items (e.g., aircraft engines and gasoline), but permits such "civilian" exports as automobiles, chemicals, textile machinery. The Tory government even allows Peking to buy antibiotics.

Sausage Skins for Steel. Other U.S. allies share Britain's attitude: P: French businessmen signed an $11.2 million contract with Peking at the Moscow Economic Conference. The deal: French metals and chemicals for Chinese silk, tea and sausage casings. P: West Germans in 1951 swapped $4 million worth of chemicals and machinery for Chinese ores and hog bristles.

Under pressure from Washington, non-Communist shipments to Red China are dwindling. Example: in 1951, Malaya sent the Reds $32 million worth of natural rubber; last year, it sent practically none. Even Hong Kong's busy entrepot trade is quietly stagnating: monthly exports to the mainland dropped from $22.8 million in 1951 to $8.2 million last year.

Rubber for Rice. Three non-Communist nations resist U.S. pressure. Egyptian cotton deliveries to Chinese Communist ports doubled in the past year; Pakistan's jumped from $45 million in 1951 to $54 million in the first six months of 1952. Most alarming of all, Ceylon, a member of the British Commonwealth, recently signed a five-year agreement to send 250,000 tons of rubber to the Red mainland. The U.S. had offered to buy the rubber at prevailing world prices, but the Ceylonese demanded an extra $50 million U.S. aid (in addition to the purchase price) as a condition of the sale. Washington demurred, and Peking closed the deal by increasing its price 40% and offering part-payment in rice. Last week the Polish freighter Mickiewicz sailed from Colombo with 5,600 tons of rubber for delivery to Shanghai. Presumably, a U.S. naval blockade of the Chinese coast would put a stop to the voyages of the Wiima and the Mickiewicz.

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