The Gissimo's Good Cheer

"We have passed our most dangerous crisis."

In Chungking, Gissimo Chiang Kai-shek is as famous for his timing as a Swiss watch. But last week, at the moment when he made this statement, the news seemed to shout that he had his schedule of optimism all mixed up.

China's news seemed to be all bad. In the eastern theater, in Chekiang Province, where the Japanese Army wants to seize airfield's within reach of Japan and Formosa, Japanese reinforcements poured in from east, north and southeast, forming a huge, closing maw. A new spearhead pushed north from the Canton area. China's Chekiang-Kiangsi and Hankow-Canton railroads were eaten up mile by hard-fought mile. Yet Chiang was optimistic.

China's military mission in Washington (TIME, June 1) was making an unprecedented display of pique and urgency. It was fed up with being both neglected and modest; China was desperate. General Hsiung Shih-fei, the mission's head, went so far as to say that China was worse off than when the U.S. joined her against Japan. U.P. quoted him as saying that "during two months he has heard no discussion of grand strategy, and if there is any, he cannot find it out." Yet Chiang was optimistic.

Apologia for Optimism. The Gissimo had his reasons: the day he made his statement (but, significantly, the day before it was announced) three top-ranking U.S. generals--Brereton of the U.S. Air Forces in India, Chennault of the A.V.G., Stilwell of Burma--met with the Gissimo in Chungking. Two of them have long been strongly pro-Chinese; two of them are airmen. What they said was not announced, but obviously they discussed U.S. air aid to China. The next day, informed sources in Chungking were saying: "Swarms of American bomber and fighter planes are coming to China's aid." Actually, no official deal for aid was made; the three generals merely explored the possibilities.

The Gissimo had other signs of awakening U.S. interest in China. His brother-in-law T. V. Soong signed with Secretary Hull a long-range economic agreement, for post-war as well as wartime assistance. President Roosevelt warned the Japs on the use of gas (see col. 1). Wendell Willkie and many another bystander came out for immediate aid for China.

And so, with a confidence which few nations have so frankly placed in the U.S., the Gissimo said: "There is decidedly no danger of our being subjugated by the enemy."

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