THE NATION: The Misfire

In Hong Kong Vice Admiral Alfred Melville Pride, commander of the U.S. Seventh Fleet, and Rear Admiral Frederick Norman Kivette, commander of the fleet's Formosa patrol, were enjoying a routine leave last week for "rest and recuperation." With their wives, they were off on a pleasant round of shopping and social events. While the admirals shopped and sipped, the Chinese Communists were shooting their way to within hailing distance of the Seventh Fleet. Boldly, the Reds crushed all Nationalist Chinese opposition on Yikiang Islet, 250 miles northwest of Formosa, then poised for an attack on the Tachen Islands eight miles closer to Formosa (see FOREIGN NEWS).

Psychological Explosion. It was no fault of Admirals Pride and Kivette that they were holidaying while Asia was burning. Months ago, the U.S. had decided that it would not defend such outlying islands as Yikiang and the Tachens. This policy was publicly reaffirmed last week by Dwight Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles in similar statements to the press. Said the President: "No military authority that I know of has tried to rate these small islands that are now under attack, or indeed the Tachens themselves, as an essential part of the defense of Formosa and of the Pescadores, to the defense of which we are committed by the treaty that is now before the Senate for approval."

What the President and the Secretary of State said about the islands had been implicit in American policy. But when it was coupled with what they said last week on another phase of the same subject, the result was a psychological explosion heard around the world. The explosive question first came up at Secretary Dulles' news conference. A reporter wanted to know whether a cease-fire would be a "desirable thing in that situation between the Chinese Nationalists and the Chinese Communists in the Formosa Straits?"

Dulles answered: that is a possibility with many pros and cons. In general, the U.S. is sympathetic toward the solution of problems by peaceful means. So something of that sort would be generally in line with the broad policies of the U.S. and the United Nations. But working out such solutions is not simple. The U.S. would not want to take any action without the utmost consideration of Nationalist China's point of view.

Inevitably, the question was put to the President next day at his press conference. Did he think it would be useful to have a cease-fire arranged by the U.N.? The President's answer: "Well. I should like to see the United Nations attempt to exercise its good offices. I believe, because wherever there is any kind of fighting and open violence in the world . . . it is always sort of a powder keg. Whether the United Nations could do anything in this particular place, I don't know, because probably each side would insist that it was an internal affair."