War of Patience

In a small, oak-paneled chamber of the Palais des Nations in Geneva an anniversary passed, without meaning or elation; last week the ambassadorial talks between the U.S. and Red China entered their second year. After 55 meetings the procedure has become cut and dried. Every ten days or so, able and unruffled U. Alexis Johnson, U.S. Ambassador to Czechoslovakia, journeys from Prague to Geneva to confront, punctually at 10 a.m., Wang Ping-nan, Red China's Ambassador to Warsaw. Johnson usually begins by asking about Americans still held in China; Wang accuses the U.S. of holding Chinese in the U.S. against their will, and sputters that all Americans in China will be re leased in accordance with "legal processes," i.e., after they have been tried for espionage. Johnson presses Red China to renounce the use of force in the Formosa Straits; Wang snaps that Formosa is a purely domestic matter. After three or four hours of this they adjourn.

Despite the frustrations, Ambassador Johnson is convinced that the talks have their value; e.g., 31 Americans have been released since last August, and the treatment of the ten still held in China has reportedly shown "very definite improvement." "I believe," adds Johnson, "that the talks may have helped stave off a shooting war in the Formosa Straits. And that, to me, is well worth the trouble of coming down to Geneva all the time, and the cost" (so far: $24,000). Johnson does not hide his respect for Wang's ability as a negotiator. "We may go at each other pretty hard, but there's none of the Panmunjom-type personal bitterness." What about future prospects? No one can guess when Peking may decide, for reasons of its own, to break the stalemate. Says Johnson: "I live from week to week."

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