THE NATION: Lady from Nanking

In Asia, one of the great crises in history was unfolding. A despairing Nationalist China continued to reach out its hands to its Western ally (see FOREIGN NEWS). This week, in Nanking, a woman boarded a U.S. Navy plane and started for Washington to make a woman's appeal.

Harry Truman had turned down the suggestion that Chiang Kai-shek be invited to the U.S., with the remark that he did not think Chiang should leave China at this time. But when Madame Chiang announced that she planned to come, the President had no choice but to acquiesce politely.

Administration officials looked forward to the event with no enthusiasm. In 1943, she had come to plead for equal aid for the East when the U.S. was concentrating its major effort on winning the Western war. She had moved Congress deeply; she had impressed officials with her silken determination.

She had lost her plea. George Marshall, then Chief of Staff, had refused to alter the Allied strategy. Now, as Secretary of State, in sober silence, George Marshall awaited the arrival of the world's most charming pleader, who would be fighting for the life of her government.