Formosa Declaration

Returning to Washington last week from a grueling, 24,000-mile trip to Formosa, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles got down from an Air Force KC-135 jet transport to face a battery of cameras and microphones. Question: "Did Chiang Kai-shek agree to a reduction of forces on the offshore islands?" Dulles: "We talked about matters far more fundamental than that. That's just a detail."

From the Dulles-Chiang talks on fundamental matters emerged a fundamental result that made Dulles' trip to Formosa a diplomatic achievement of a sort. One nagging hindrance to the Administration's Far Eastern policy is the impression, widespread among the free world's leaders and opinion-shapers, that Nationalist China's Chiang Kai-shek is fanatically bent on invading the mainland at whatever cost, even nuclear world war. In an effort to correct that impression, Dulles got from Chiang a formal declaration renouncing force as the "principal means" of liberating the mainland Chinese.

Sacred Mission. During Dulles' three days on Formosa, he and Chiang held four conferences. From these meetings, plus Army Chief of Staff Maxwell Taylor's separate talks with Nationalist military leaders came an understanding that when and if the Red Chinese agree to a "dependable" ceasefire, or at least refrain from acts of aggression for months in a row, Chiang will start gradually reducing his forces on the offshore islands.

But most headlines focused on Chiang's no-force declaration in the joint communique issued at the end of Dulles' visit: "The Government of the Republic of China considers that the restoration of freedom to its people on the mainland is its sacred mission [and that] the principal means of successfully achieving its mission is the implementation of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles, and not the use of force."* Free China spokesmen later insisted that this declaration did not bind Chiang to hold back if a Hungary-type uprising broke out on the mainland. For the U.S.'s part, Dulles explicitly recognized in the joint communique that "under the present conditions" (i.e., as long as the Red Chinese keep up acts of aggression), the defense of Quemoy and Matsu is "closely related" to the defense of Formosa and the Pescadores.

Any Lengths. After Dulles departed, the Communists stopped shelling for a while, and Red Defense Minister Peng Teh-huai, in a broadcast beamed at the Free Chinese, announced that shore batteries would hold their fire every other day so that supplies could reach Quemoy. Furthermore, said Peng, the Peking government stood ready to supply Quemoy with "anything" the island lacked. "It is time now to turn from foe into friend," he added.

With that crude propaganda switch, the Chinese Reds--proved unable to win anything by their artillery assault against Quemoy--made it clear that they will go to any lengths to keep Quemoy alive as a political issue.

* The three principles laid down by China's first President (1912) Sun Yatsen: nationalism, democracy, social welfare.

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