A Difference of Opinion

For 17 months Lieut. General Joseph W. Stilwell has been under fire in Washington, London and New Delhi. Critics said the new Ledo Road from India to China (TIME, Oct. 11) was not worth the effort; construction would take too long, even at best it would never carry sufficient supplies.

In India's capital last week, "Vinegar Joe'' Stilwell sat rigidly in his rattan-cane armchair, long fingers playing with his favorite cigaret holder, eyes almost shut. Curtly he replied to his critics: the Ledo Road fulfills two U.S. objectives: 1) to get at least some supplies to blockaded China; 2) to set up a situation in which Japs are killed.

The Problem. For the first time, hints of friction in Southeast Asia had been spoken out loud. Admiral the Lord Louis Mountbatten differs with Stilwell, looks far into the future, wants to retake Sumatra, Malaya (with Singapore), Thailand, Indo-China, punch through a sea route to China. Stilwell's Chinese troops and his air force are necessary for that program.

The U.S. commander admitted that a southern China port must be opened before the armies of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek can be rearmed. But "Vinegar Joe," who probably knows China better than any brasshat in New Delhi, stoutly held that the "Hump" air route and the Ledo Road can fill the immediate gap in China's desperate needs, thus fit into the general Asia strategy.

Gold braid stirred in the corner, where sat representatives of the Southeast Asia Command. "Uncle Joe's" keen eyes opened wide, flashed a danger signal. He said: "China's been blockaded for some time. Reopening communications will help China considerably. Our units there have done the impossible, something that many people here felt couldn't be done."

Stilwell's Solution. The Ledo Road, said Stilwell, "has stood up very well to monsoons and we are using heavy trucks over completed [116 miles] portions. . . . The Japs . . . haven't stopped construction. . . . The Chinese are fighting well, their morale is high and they've inflicted heavy casualties on the Japs. . . . Chinese and American troops are getting along very well together. They've been together for 18 months and when you die side by side that means a lot."

These determined replies meant that as long as Stilwell commanded U.S. forces in China, Burma and India, building of the Ledo Road and the killing of Japs by Americans and American-trained Chinese would continue. The bigger job of killing more Japs could only be begun when the strength-starved India-Burma-China theater got the ships, planes and men to make it possible.

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