Foreign News: Invitation Accepted

In Chungking voices rose & fell in the inflection of the four Chinese tones. The most outspoken meeting of the People’s Political Council in Chungking’s history was in progress. One subject was the unity negotiations which have dragged on for more than four months between Chungking and representatives of the Chinese Communists. What the voices really talked about was control of China—a subject whose ultimate consequences might well be more important to Americans than a Presidential election.

Said Communist Spokesman Lin Tso-han: “We would like to have a national congress called immediately.” Cried Chungking’s Dr. Wang Shih-chieh: “While Manchuria and other provinces are cut off from Free China, nationwide elections are impossible. The Government has promised all parties, including the Communists, equal status within one year after the war.” There was charge and countercharge about the Chinese Red Army. Lin charged that Chungking wanted to cut its present strength of 470,000 men to 150,000. The Communists, retorted Dr. Wang, kept raising the ante: “At the beginning . . .Lin demanded twelve divisions for the Communists . . . later he asked for 16.”

Lin issued a challenge: we have invited Dr. Wang and his colleagues to visit Yenan [Communist capital] for a thorough exchange of views. Said Dr. Wang: “We are ready to accept. …” Then the Council took an unprecedented step: it voted to send a delegation of five non-Kuomintang members to Yenan to investigate.