Foreign News: Guests

Down on a Chungking airport came a big C-54 from over the Hump. Out stepped three U.S. guests of China: WPBoss Donald Nelson, dressed in a snappy blue suit and blue tie; Major General Patrick Hurley, wearing a bush jacket; and General Joseph Stilwell, in khaki field jacket. On hand to welcome the visitors were Chinese officials led by T. V. Soong, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

On the first day of their stay the Americans saw Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. Next day they conferred with the Chinese Ministers of Economic Affairs and Communications, the Vice Minister of Finance, and others. They held a press conference, attended by almost 40 reporters, largely Chinese. Businessman Nelson took complete command of the situation, spoke with off-the-record frankness. The gist of his on-the-record remarks: the U.S. mission’s primary purpose was to set up the means for licking Japan. But it was also going to study the economic situation, present and prospective, with a view to immediate and postwar problems.

Chungking observers speculated: the mission was a fruit of Vice President Henry Wallace’s visit last May. Within a measurable period of time, U.S. supplies—via either the Burma Road or the Pacific —will be flowing into China. Basic principles, commitments of one Government to the other, must be worked out now to avoid possible future misunderstandings.