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. — ed we Owe . OUR LAST CHANCE IN CHINA. | : by PEARL S. BUCK _ ae E HAVE NOW solidly laid the foun- Our fine ideas and sentiments now ring dations for future wars in Asia. We hollow to her. She believed in them before ghia have jaid them in the two most impor- war. Now she knows better. Like the Adaatic | tant countries, China and India; but we have not Charter, they do not apply toher, |. Ske wholly neglected Russia. Should Russia be dis- The foundations have not been so easy to tay” satishcd with us in the future, a thing always pos- in China because that country is not quite ia the sible, she will find two potential allies, numbering position of India. “But in spite of all dificulty-we ~ between them most of the world’s population. It are succeeding there too in alienating the may be, if industrialization is rapid enough, that and in building up‘ dismay and distrust, ready or. said, itis - f f ‘ Russian leadership will not even be necessary. the next war. As Walter Lippmann has For we have laid the foundations of future wars now very necessary for us to keep close to Britain. with masterful thoroughness. We have neglected We have followed British policy so faithfully that: , - no insults, we have been ruthless in our denials. we have lost our own opportunity in this tion for taking a leading part in the effaire of Asia, perhaps of the world. Britain and Roseia ‘338 will tie for the place of highest power in the peace. In any event, we will come in third. . — This has been the resule of our own ignorance - not only of Asia and the world, but our ignorance - of ourselves, our own strength, and the stra oo ° place in which this war put us in the world. Wath _ the greatest industrial machine in the world, the .~! Under able English direction we have completely scorned India, first by our silence during the Cripps mission and by our acquiesence ih the sup- pression of human rights to a degree which has : not been matched, in its ruthlessness, outside of ’ Fascist-owned Europe; second, by careful and total i Ggmorance about her famine, again under direction, and third by our recent refusal at Bretton Woods to agree that India has the right to spend her own moncy as she likes. Scrupulously careful always, greatest army and navy and air force, our diplo- we have chimed in and agreed with England that macy, always subject to Britain, has now put ws: the unfreezing of Indian credits in London can be into third-rate position among the powers. no part of any international agrecment. feared it with the loss of India as an ally, formo: wy his disposes pretty thoroughly of India. For one can call a people as sullen as balf-ctarved alum a long ume to come she will not believe in us. slaves an ally; one fears it still more in the deqp | SRE Oe 26S