THE DUEL FOR ASIA

...Certainly there is no lack of open propaganda for Communism all over India...

...How were they affected...

...If we don't get back soon, we will not get back at all...

...Even in Hongkong, within shooting distance of Communist China, exposed physically to invasion which could be carried out successfully at will by the Communists, no one seemed at all panicky...

...Particularly is this true of the stress placed on the right of the people to own land as individuals, to buy, sell, or rent it...

...A number of them told me they were conducted on this tour and shown what the government wished them to see, though some of them asserted they went freely about the cities they visited and were allowed to ask all the questions they desired—even to criticize the Communist regime publicly...

...The men looked at me in something approaching open-mouthed wonder as they replied, "Well, why not...

...I doubt that they will...

...Neither was a Communist, but each saw from his own particular standpoint much that commended the regime, while at the same time each was frankly critical of other phases...

...I found that Communist China invites people, especially Chinese who live outside the country, to visit and see for themselves what is happening...

...For the most part they lean more strongly toward the democratic way of life than the communistic...

...What is galling to traveling Americans is that we must defend ourselves against the charge that we are a moral threat to peoples of the East...

...Perhaps these people were deceived...

...The important things seem to be not abstract principles of justice and freedom, but the more practical matter of meeting the elemental problems of subsistence, for it is at that level that the most pressing problems of India lie...

...There was, they said, new enthusiasm and hope among the people...

...In Formosa, I was greatly imCHARLES S. BRADEN, professor and chairman of the department of the history and literature of religions at Northwestern University, recently returned from a seven months survey of the effects of war and communism on the world's religions for a book Harper's will publish this tall...

...Hadn't we first used the atom bomb?, people asked...

...I can only suggest that visitors who emerged talking of free religion were interested iii other matters...

...I was eager to discover how Communism was affecting religion in Japan, so one of my first questions to the committee which met me at the airport was: May I freely discuss Communism here...

...They had been generally sympathetic before they went...

...Among Dr...

...Will they get back to China...

...But we have been put on the defensive almost everywhere...

...A second impression was that, on the whole, Communist propaganda had the advantage over that of the free world...

...Inevitably I formed many impressions not directly related to the basic theme of the book I am writing—and I am delighted to share them with fellow readers of The Progressive...

...These converts to Communism were willing to make great personal sacrifices to see it succeed...

...I have a high regard for much that I saw the U.S...

...Then came Communism and see'what has happened...

...Most 6f them want none of the colonialism and imperialism that go with close association with one of the giants of the earth...

...They do not believe there are only two possible ways of life...

...I do not mean to imply that there is no effective counter-propaganda from the West...

...The Red line seemed to reach people more effectively...

...I knew immediately that I should never have used the word complacent...

...Information Service doing all over the East...

...There was concern, certainly, among responsible leaders, but nothing more tense than that...

...Nehru's prestige was high nearly everywhere I went...

...They report no collectivization of farms such as has been enforced in European Communist states...

...Indeed, 80 policemen were injured in Communist rioting in Tokyo during my stay...

...I found nowhere anything like the near-hysteria so common in America...

...But also there were the movies, the radio, the theaters, and the village story-tellers constantly carrying the message of Communism to the people, and in a form that is most attractive to the undernourished, over-worked population of the Asian countries...

...In China they thought they saw problems similar to their own being met to the advantage of the common people...

...The people of India were greatly impressed when the Good Will mission, composed of representative Indian businessmen and educators, returned from China with these conclusions: During the Nationalist regime China had been plundered to the tune of 20 billion American dollars by the "four families of bureaucratic capital...

...By far the most striking aspect of Communist propaganda was the fact that it was carried on not by Russian or Chinese Communists, but by convinced native nationals of the various countries...

...This, I found, was a widely prevalent, pathetic faith that I encountered throughout Southeastern Asia, India, and to some extent the Near East...

...They were exploited by the West and their dupes in the form of Chiang Kai-shek and his followers until they were hopelessly poor...

...Only in Iraq, which had just hanged four Communists, did I not find people talking freely and frankly of Communism...

...What they saw happening to a country which, like India, was over-populated and existing at an extremely low standard, made them hopeful that India's problems, too, could be solved, though neither of them would, I think, say that he wanted India to go Communist...

...Here was Japan, separated by only a short sea barrier from Russia and Chinese Communism, but there was no jittery fear among the people...

...Several of them were realistic enough to say...

...Private property in land and industry is recognized and safeguarded...

...The Land Reform Program allows private owners the right to buy, sell and rent land, and it omits all reference to collectivization...

...Ill One final impression which was reinforced again and again as I interviewed religious, educational, and political leaders and leading editors in the countries of Southeast Asia, India, and the Near East, was this: These people, almost unanimously, want to follow neither Russia nor the United States...

...Communist printed matter—newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, books —was on sale everywhere, often attractively printed, and at ridiculously low prices...

...Today," they said, "the standards for the peasant, the worker, and the pettybourgeois are very much higher than in India...

...Here," they said, "is a people like ourselves who suffered under the exploitation of Western imperialism...

...The visitors pay their own way to the Chinese port of entry, but are then given an extensive tour, at government expense, through at least the Eastern seaboard from Canton to Mukden...

...I came home from this trip with a better understanding of the attitudes of these peoples outside the orbit of either East or West and with the hope that our side will have regard for their point of view...

...Now with the progressive liquidation of landlordism, China not only supplies all her own food needs but has a surplus for export...

...If we do this, we shall win their respect, even if they do not follow us in any organizational sense...

...My first impression was the relative freedom with which I could discuss Communism in every country I visited save one—Iraq...

...At the end of two months they were allowed, for an additional two months, to travel at their own discretion among the villages and inland cities, even to return to their native home communities...

...No," he replied, "we are not at all complacent about the matter, but we certainly are not insane about it either," hinting by his tone that he thought Americans were...

...They wanted some of the results they believed Communism had achieved for the masses, without taking everything Communism had, or employing the methods of Communism...

...At once he bridled...

...Evidently it was heavily subsidized...

...Braden's book are "The World's Religions," "Man's Quest for Salvation," "These Also Believe," and "Modern Tendencies in World Religions...

...I was humiliated to discover how widespread was the acceptance of the fantastic charge that we had used germ warfare in Korea...

...Everywhere else, however, I was asked constantly, "Why is America so hysterical about Communism...

...But they struck me as a sincere and valiant, if rather pathetic group of people fighting for a lost cause— lost at least for the immediate future...

...When I asked, as I did always, whether Communism would come to their countries, the response often went something like this, "Well, some kind of modified Communism, indigenous to India (or the country of the person speaking), but without any close tie-up with either Russian or Chinese Communism...

...They had clearly seen what they were looking for...

...Whatever the merits of the argument, there can be no question that a promise to deal head-on with hunger and poverty is much more likely to be heard and heeded by the people than concern for those deeper underlying moral principles and questions of method which may be involved...

...I committed the indiscretion of saying to him: "Isn't Hinduism rather complacent in its attitude toward Communism...

...This was natural enough in the last stronghold of Free China whose people had suffered so much at Communist hands...

...I recall once in India talking with a distinguished Hindu religious leader about the Hindu attitude toward Communism...

...I found more concern about a possible revival of the military control if rearmament were forced upon them than concern that Communism would triumph...

...On the contrary, they insist that the People's Government "pursues a policy which can by no means be called Communism...

...There is another way, perhaps several, and they do not want to be forced to forego the search for, and the following of, some middle way which will let them retain their independence...

...Whether they were mistaken or not is perhaps less important for our purpose than the fact that such reports arouse hope in the people of India...

...I was obliged to discount the story of some that there was complete religious freedom, because it was in direct collision with the testimony I had first-hand from persons who had been victims of religious persecution...

...They seem clearly to be looking only at the desirable results that have been attained, rather than at the process itself...

...When I ventured to ask some of these men about the more sinister aspects of the story, I was reminded that in every great revolutionary movement some people are bound to be hurt...

...Even in Iran, which borders directly on Russia, there was no evidence of hysteria...

...Unhappily, by contrast, a good deal of the Western propaganda was carried on by foreigners who were, from the native point of view, extremely well-paid, or by nationals employed by foreign agents...

...This was not universally true, of course...

...Time is not on our side...

...Some were critical of this or that feature of Red rule, yet were greatly impressed by the general picture...

...Perhaps India might be the effective organizing center for this third way...

...There was no lack of Communist propaganda...

...Friendly understanding and a firm determination to refrain from attempting to compel them to side with us will be the surest way to make certain that they do not follow Russian or Chinese Communism...

...The Duel For Asia By Charles S. Braden A Noted Scholar Shares His First-Hand Impressions Of How The East Responds to the Reds and Us RECENTLY I concluded a journey around the globe to study the effects of war and Communism on the religions of the world...

...We are the war-mongers and Communists the peace-loving people...

...It was clearly to China, not Russia, that these people looked...

...I found Formosa alert and extremely careful about admitting anyone who had come recently out of China...

...Mostly it was not concerned with abstract ideals of justice and freedom, but with more food to eat, land to farm, jobs to be had at wages that would support life...

...And would a nation that had deliberately wiped out cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki be deterred by humanitarian consideration from using germ warfare...

...But there was no hysteria among any of the many Free China leaders I interviewed, or among the citizens generally as I met and talked with them...

...perhaps they saw an occasional temple or church, open for worship, but they knew nothing of the severe restrictions placed on them...

...II Well, a number whom I interviewed came back talking the Communist Party line without variation...

...A third impression of mine was that the information we get about Chinese Communism through our Western news channels differs greatly from what I got from numerous individuals who had but recently come out of China...

...I met many Indian, Ceylonese, Burmese, and other editors, teachers, and public figures who were wholeheartedly committed to the democratic way of life and were using their influence in that direction, but it was frequently charged they were the tools of imperialistic Western powers...

...Perhaps they were allowed to see only what Chinese leaders wanted them to see...

...Most of my informants were struck by the fact that the general standard of living had been definitely lifted...

...It was a matter of continual wonder to me that most of those who had been to China saw nothing of the impact of Russian imperialism...

...pressed by the caliber and character of Chiang Kai-shek, whom I interviewed, and the lesser figures around him...

...But by no means was this always the case...

...Yet there was a calmness on the part of the people—a general feeling that Japan just wouldn't fall for Communism, that stood in sharp contrast to the state of mind in America...

...Most impressive of all to me were the reports of two Indian university teachers, one a professor of philosophy, the other of political science...

...They were unable to raise enough food to support themselves, so they had to import it...