Reischauer Asks Patience on China

"We will win the long run battle in China if we do not antagonize the Chinese people by blunders like seizing Formosa," Edwin O. Reischauer Ph.D. '39, associate professor of Far Eastern Languages, told the 28th annual session of the Massachusetts League of Women Voters yesterday afternoon in Radcliffe's Agassiz Theater.

Economic aid tailored to fit the Near and Far East was proposed by Richard N. Frye Ph.D. '46, associate professor of Middle Eastern Studies, who discussed the decline of American popularity in the Near East. Third speaker Richard Park AM'48, teaching fellow in Government, prophesized that the Communists may easily take over in Indo-China.

Hands-Off Policy

The best policy for the United States now is to do nothing and await the day when China will stray back into the fold, Reischauer claimed. The United States has lost its prestige with the Chinese people, who realize that Communism is the most efficient method to achieve a strong nationalistic government, he went on to say. He explained that they want rapid industrialization, which can only come if the Russians ship them machinery. The chances are that the Russians cannot spare this machinery, so their prestige will fail, Reischauer added.

Since at present only a small percentage of the Chinese can read, they cannot be educated into the ways of democracy, and that form of government will be impossible for several generations. A regime, however, which is not oriented toward Russia may easily evolve, Reischauer concluded, for if communists do not make a strong China quickly, there is a good chance they will lose it forever.

Turman Policy Dated

In detailing our failures and possible future policy in the Near East, Frye claimed that the Truman Plan is out of date. Hostile feeling is rising in Turkey, because she feels the United States thinks her expendable, sending only guns and not butter. He proposed a long range program of aid in the Near East for these countries which ask for it.

We have learned something from the past failures of Britain and France, who supported monopoly groups in these countries, but we may be making the same mistake in the Arab oil producing states by befriending the leaders like Ibn Ben Saud and forgetting the people, Frye said.

In Palestine, our lack of a definite policy has gained the enmity of both Jews and Arabs. He also criticized our failure to get Turkey to join the Atlantic Pact while Italy was invited.

Discuss Indo-China

Park, who covered Far Eastern affairs in his talk, gave the French sponsored government in Indo-China only an even chance of surviving against the Communists. A Communist overthrow in Indo-China might easily be followed by the setting up of similar regimes in Burma, Malaya, and Thailand. He viewed the Far East as the touchiest area facing our foreign policy and recommended long term economic aid such as experimental farms and demonstration factories.

United States help in reconciling Pakistan and India should also be part of our foreign policy, Park said.

Today's sessions of the School of International Relations wil linclude talks on Regionalism and Security by Saville Davis, American News Editor of the Christian Science Monitor, and Yugoslavia as a factor in our relations with Russia, by Robert Lee Wolff, associate professor of History at the University of Wisconsin.

Sessions of the school will continue this afternoon when the women will hear talks on the Development of Democratic Law as well as an analysis of the Point Four Program.