Wanted: Tools, Not Men

Now that the Chinese Nationalists on Formosa are free to move, what do they hope to accomplish, and what kind of help do they need? In New York, bespectacled Tsiang Ting-fu, chief Nationalist delegate to the United Nations, carefully laid out his government's attitude:

P: If asked to, but only if asked to, Chiang Kai-shek is willing to reconsider his 1950 offer of three Formosan divisions to fight with the U.N. armies in Korea. "That offer . . . was refused," Tsiang said. "We understand the grounds for the refusal. [We have not] renewed our offer . . . We ourselves are not convinced that Korea is the best place for the Free Chinese to make a contribution."

P: "It is wrong for anybody to assume that the Chinese army can be counted as just expendable material to be used by others wherever they see fit."

P: A U.N. naval blockade of the Chinese mainland makes "good common sense."

P: Nationalist China's greatest contribution would be "an independent offensive" against the Chinese Reds. Said Tsiang: "I myself have a new suggestion to make . . . My plan is not that American air and naval power should be used to help Free China's infantry to invade the mainland. My plan is that Free China should acquire enough naval and air power . . . so that [it] can independently invade and liberate the mainland." (On Formosa last week, President Chiang Kai-shek emphasized only that he "will not ask for aid in ground forces.")

P: In view of the "diplomatic and strategic exigencies," any Chinese Nationalist operation should be on its own.

"We believe," said Diplomat Tsiang, "that an independent offensive on the part of my government will be welcomed by our fellow countrymen on the mainland. Such an offensive is not in the nature of the conquest of mainland China by the island of Formosa. It is in the nature of 8,000,000 Chinese on Formosa going to the mainland to help the 450 million Chinese there to overthrow the Communist yoke which they themselves wish to overthrow."

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