CHINA: Waking Up

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Supreme Court Justice William 0. Douglas is a well-meaning liberal who has traveled from the Rockies to the Himalayas, stalking the Common Man with cliche and camera. In 1948 he reported that Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist regime was "tainted by corrupt and reactionary elements"; it had "lost the heart of the people," who had turned to Communism as their only hope. Last year he urged U.S. recognition of the Chinese Communists. Recognition, said Douglas, would wean the Chinese people and their masters away from Russian domination.

Last week, with Red China firmer in the Russian camp than ever, Justice Douglas was in Formosa, taking a look-see at the Nationalist government, and reversed his earlier judgment. Chiang Kai-shek's government, he said, was doing "a fine and valiant job, not only in its struggle against Communism but in its program of social reconstruction . . . Free China will succeed in its struggle."

Justice Douglas may have waked up, but not U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson. Reports from Formosa last week said that U.S. military authorities there have urged Washington to allow the use of two of Chiang's excellently trained divisions in Korea. As it has done again & again in the past when this suggestion has been made, the State Department refused to consider it and turned away with the air of an old lady who has been asked to take tea with a convict.