THREE VIEWS OF CHINA'S FUTURE

...Goodnow himself...

...His consideration of "the Powers" is somewhat inadequate...

...Lattimore's criticisms of "Anglo-Saxon democracies which come coupled with ruthless imperialism" are not lightly to be dismissed, however...

...He assumes that China is actually going to become the master of Manchuria when Japan is defeated, and gives no indication of the powerful role which the Soviet Union seems destined and determined to play in the Far East...

...Certainly, if all we can do in the Far East is aid and abet militarism, dictatorship, exploitation, and war as we have been doing, Moscow's "politics of attraction" will be ever more successful among Asiatic peoples, and perhaps Lattimore is on the winning side...

...The J. P. E. L. is "entirely in the hands of the Japanese, and the [Chinese] Communists keep scrupulously clear of it...

...It also contains, however, some useful material, since there is no reason to doubt Forman's veracity in describing things he actually saw...

...and to "the period of confusion that could be expected if many millions of Chinese were left to put into practice their own spontaneous but possibly conflicting ideas of how to start organizing themselves," might have been written by the late Dr...

...His historical chapter on "Japan, the Exponent of Cut-rate Imperialism," which points out clearly that "Japan's exploitation of China was aided and abetted by the United States and Britain on condition that they receive their share of the loot," is essentially sound—though his criticism of ex-Ambassador Grew's report on 1941 Japan is rather absurd...

...This is a kind of "democracy" of which even Lattimore can approve...

...Goodnow of the same school, who was the American adviser to Marshal Yuan Shih-kai in the latter's ill-fated attempt to' restore the Chinese Empire with himself on the throne...

...Har-court, Brace...

...The J. P. E. L. program appealing to the Japanese people, calling for the end of the war, a "just peace," the "independence and prosperity" of Japan, a "democratic system of government," and the end of the "influence of the militarists on Japanese politics," makes no reference of any kind to the Emperor...

...But the democratic alternative to all this—an American policy devoted primarily to the advancement of peace and of genuinely democratic institutions, political and economic— is something that Lattimore has never stood for at any time, any more than the State Department has done during the past half century...

...Okano...

...ROWE'S book, China Among the Powers, is the most balanced of the 3. It is an intelligent, judicious appraisal of China's actual position among the "Big 4," in terms of Chinese power both immediate and potential...

...But his personal observations are revealing in more ways than one—as when he describes the workings of the new "democracy" at a village election which he attended...

...Forman also gives some interesting material (the significance of which he evidently does not understand) on Stalin's policy towards Japan...

...Rowe points out the serious internal weaknesses of China, both political and economic, and correctly notes that the lack of oil, iron, and other necessary materials are probably a permanent obstacle to China's becoming a great independent military power along modern lines...

...These latter quotations are from the Lattimore book of last year, The Making of Modern China, which was excellent propaganda for the Chiang Kai-shek regime and the "organized drive of the Kuomintang for uniformity, discipline, and control...

...His emergence as definitely a fellow-traveler is of special interest in view of his association with White House policy in recent years...

...Susumu Okano" (a pseudonym), a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, was sent to Yenan in 1943 to organize the Japanese People's Emancipation League, made up of Japanese war prisoners and a few deserters...

...Lattimore is in a way the successor to Dr...

...This is a notable contrast to the attitude of Lattimore and other American fellow-travelers and Communists, who are insistent that the American Government should be emphatically anti-Emperor—evidently to help Stalin's more "reasonable" propaganda...

...Until recently he was director of "Pacific operations" for the OWI He has since 1938 been director of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, which has often had curious relations with our foreign policies...

...Lattimore's objections to "naive and even Utopian attempts to establish democratic methods and procedures...

...Reviewed by Harry Paxton Howard OWEN LATTIMORE'S book, Solution in Asia, contains some very useful historical material on our tragic record both in China and Japan, and in that respect is an excellent antidote to the propagandists who extol the "ethical" and "altruistic" nature of our imperialism in the Far East...

...These things seen, however, must be carefully distinguished from the "history," "statistics," and other propaganda which the Chinese Communists gave him, and which he swallowed with gusto and sets down as "facts...

...Lattimore was "political adviser to Chiang Kai-shek, on the recommendation of President Roosevelt," for some two years—1941-42...

...HARRISON FORMAN'S book, Report from Red China, is more forthrightly propagandist than Lattimore's...

...He has found in the "Soviet form of democracy" a concept nearer to his heart than "naive" and "Utopian" attempts such as we made in this country in 1776 and since, and without the "confusion" of many persons with many ideas trying to participate in political life on a basis of free and equal citizenship...

...All of the candidates, Communist Party and nonparty, endorsed Chairman Mao Tse-tung's 11-point program...

...It is not clear how, if at all, the "dissolution" of the Comintern affected Mr...

...Okano's Japanese get a higher food ration than do Chinese...

...What Lattimore calls for, however, is not a reorientation toward fundamental American ideals of liberty and equality, but one toward what he terms "the Soviet form of democracy...

...Yale Institute of International Studies...

...He is now much more friendly to the Chinese Communists, and stresses the "democracy" of their regime—as well as that of the Soviet Union...