So Nice, Yes?

It was not words China needed; it was planes. China needed no promises; she needed tanks. China needed no more goodwill ambassadors; she needed guns.

All this was well and bitterly known to Lauchlin Currie when he faced Mme. Chiang Kai-shek and many another Chinese personage last week on Vice President H. H. Kung's lawn in Chungking. President Roosevelt had sent Dr. Currie to Chungking once before, in 1941, when Lend-Lease was a glowing promise. Now he was back, in the sixth and darkest year of China's war.

The Chinese listened for words of action. They were grateful for what Lieut. General Stilwell and Brigadier General Chennault were doing with so little (see p. 37). They hoped that would be proof at last of how much more a little more would do. Had Dr. Currie come to talk real business--like Hopkins & Harriman on their trips to London and Moscow?

Lauchlin Currie denounced Japan's "tawdry mask." He restated "our pledge to deliver to China's veteran armies and experienced generals a striking power that will turn a long and glorious war of resistance into offensive campaigns." He assured the Chinese that President Roosevelt and his advisers "have a full conception of this as a global, worldwide war." He said that China's war is a U.S. war.

The Chinese faces on the lawn did not change. Chinese pulses did not quicken. The applause was polite.

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