• U.S.

FOREIGN RELATIONS: Personal Opinions

2 minute read
TIME

In the bridge room of Shanghai’s American Club, ECAdministrator Paul G. Hoffman, nine days out of Washington on a quick round-the-world trip, met some 35 foreign and Chinese correspondents last week. Trim and smiling in his double-breasted blue suit, Hoffman tried to be as responsive as possible. Sensibly, at the outset, he cautioned that he had no authority or qualifications to “determine or define” U.S. policy toward China. But, whatever his good intentions, the cautious, sensible-sounding words he then uttered were a kick in the teeth to the tottering Nationalist government and a boost, in effect, to the Communists.

Would the U.S., he was asked, continue purely relief ECA aid to a Communist or coalition regime in China? Not to an all-Communist government, he said emphatically. But Hoffman said he would recommend aid to a coalition which represented all the people: “If a [Chinese coalition] government were set up that gave the hope that conditions would exist which would permit continuation of free institutions, I think our government would be willing to accept a recommendation of continued aid.”

As Hoffman must have known, there is yet to be found a Communist-dominated coalition which preserves free institutions. The first news dispatches in the U.S. press gave the impression that he had committed the U.S. to political support of a coalition government in China, that the Chiang government was already written off. In Honolulu, on his way home, Hoffman explained that he had been talking about “dealing with the people, not governments.” In Pasadena, Calif., he pointed out, with mild irritation, that it was ‘the State Department’s prerogative to give or withhold political support. Before that, the State Department had commented coolly that Mr. Hoffman had merely expressed his “personal opinions” in the Shanghai interview.

After all the explanations and qualifications, the official U.S. position shook down to this: 1) Paul Hoffman, as boss of” ECA, had given it as his opinion that the U.S. would continue to give food and other non-military supplies to the Chinese people as long as possible (i.e., until the Communists took over completely, as they have in Mukden, forcing ECA to shut up shop; 2) the State Department, which has made no pronouncement of its political position toward China since the start of the recent Communist military successes, continued to be absolutely mum.

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