CHINA: Plain Talk

Last week, in Chungking, the People’s Political Council concluded the most exciting and memorable meeting in its history. Purely an advisory body,* it had long been regarded as membered by impatient reformers. But this year the Council demanded a full accounting of China’s wartime administration and delivered itself of responsible criticism on every part of China’s crisis. Result: a sudden ray of hope in China’s blackest year.

When the council met, there was nothing to distinguish this meeting from a dozen others. In the assembly hall a blue and white banner over the platform bore the legend “love and security.” A large likeness of the late, great Dr. Sun Yat-sen stared down with brooding eyes at bored back-row members who read newspapers through Chiang Kai-shek’s opening speech. Unsuspecting General Ho Ying-chin made an ominous report on Japanese advances, conditions in the Chinese Army. Suddenly it, happened. General Ho reeled under a blistering barrage of critical questions.

Observers to Yenan. Once started, the P.P.C. did not stop. For the first time the Communist issue was discussed in the open—how to achieve unity or at least working relations with China’s 80 million Communists. Then the P.P.C. appointed a five-man commission of its own to journey to Yenan, capital of Communist China, investigate Communist claims (TIME, Aug. 28). The choice of investigators (not one of the five men named was a Kuomintang member) was an unmistakable slap at the all-powerful Kuomintang. The P.P.C. also demanded:

¶ Sweeping reforms in the Army, including a thorough cleanup of the graft-rotted conscription system; disbanding of divisions with low morale to provide more equipment and rice for divisions with higher morale; widening the conscription base to include students.

¶ A more energetic foreign policy, with special emphasis on improving relations with Soviet Russia. (Chungking made a gesture in this direction last month when Sinkiang’s anti-Soviet governor Shen Shihtsai was replaced by General Wu Chung-hsin, an expert conciliator. His nickname: Ho-shih-laoor”Old-Man-Smooth-lt-Over.”

¶ Liquidation of the U.S. investment of Chungking officials and use of the funds thus gained to improve Army conditions.

¶ Publication of the national budget (TIME, Sept. 25).

¶ A regulation forbidding the Finance Minister to remain in the banking business while in office (Finance Minister H. H. Kung is head of the Central Bank and the Bank of China).

Attack and Support. The Central Government could, if it chose, have ignored all recommendations. But back to the Council came President Chiang. Said he: “. . . You criticize and attack the Government, but at the same time you support and help it. … If this spirit of sincerity and loyalty to the State is further developed, I firmly believe that China has a great future. . . .”

In Chungking Chinese and foreigners alike felt their deep gloom give way to optimism. Cabled TIME’s Theodore H. White: “Criticism by the P.P.C. passes any in intensity and disapproval. There’s an increasing desire for unity and an unbudging reluctance to concede an inch on either side. What will come of it no one knows. . . . But the session is regarded as the most encouraging development of a year of unbroken disaster and deterioration.”

*The P.P.C. is composed of 240 members of whom 50% are Kuomintang members. 18 members are Communists and members of small parties, the rest have no party affiliations. Proposals must be signed by 25 councilors elected by the P.P.C. before presentation. In this way Kuomintang members control the P.P.C.