Henry on Tour

The announcement from Henry Wallace's office said only: "Vice President Wallace hopes to visit Chungking some time in late spring or early summer. . . . No additional details are available at this time. . . ."

All week long pundits and politicos scrambled happily after clues, sniffed at red herrings, jumped to unlikely conclusions. Finally two facts emerged:

P: Henry Wallace will be back in time for the July 19 opening of the Democratic National Convention. This was sad news to those Democrats who had fondly hoped that Franklin Roosevelt was going to dump Henry at long distance.

P: The trip may have diplomatic importance--even though Henry Wallace is the ideological representative of only a fraction of the U.S. people. The V.P. may travel on from China to Russia, India, Iran--perhaps even to Italy and London. As the Second Citizen of the U.S. he will be suitably feted and his opinions noted.

Chungking cabled that it was already preparing "a great welcome." But to a nation which has somehow survived seven discouraging winters at war and three winters of disillusionment about American promises, Henry Wallace will come as only the latest of U.S. promise-bearers. The V.P.'s act will have to be good to get any honest applause.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.