The Press: Censorship on Formosa

For grumpy reporters around the bar at the Friends of China Club in Formosa, the two-edged motto of the day was, “Down with everything!” Censorship jointly imposed by U.S. and Chinese Nationalist forces last week reduced the 44 foreign correspondents on Formosa to reporting the Chinese Communists’ attacks on Quemoy from scraps of released information, e.g., “An amount of supplies was landed.”

Blunter yet was the Nationalists’ unexplained canceling of the visa of NBC Correspondent James Robinson while he was in the U.S. for a news program. Apparent reason: following Robinson’s filmed TV interview in May with Chiang Kaishek. NBC angered the Generalissimo by noting he had ducked such questions as what would happen to his government if the U.S. recognized Red China.