Modest Hopes

At a press conference in London last week, reporters shot straightforward questions at T. V. Soong, China's sturdy Foreign Minister. Cosmopolite Soong, brother of Mme. Chiang Kaishek, answered in plain English. Result: a broad-scale, official blueprint of China's postwar policies:

Reconstruction. "Great efforts will be made to industrialize the country. . . . We shall need foreign technicians . . . foreign capital. We shall welcome both. But not, of course, on the old basis of concessions or privileges."

Territories. Manchuria (see below) and Formosa, must come back into China. Korea must be independent. "Part of Indo-China used to be Chinese territory and there are some Chinese living there. But we have no aspirations with regard to Indo-China, Thailand or any other place of that sort." Asked whether China would claim Hong Kong (from the British), Diplomat Soong answered: "If I were a member of your Government in Britain, answering questions in Parliament, I would say 'I must have notice of that question.' "

Japan, hoped T. V. Soong, "would be . . . ruled by a democratic government."

Race, "As to Chinese citizens living in other countries, we ask ... only that there shall not be discrimination against us."

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