Treachery on the Record

"Russia's vows," said U.S. Secretary of State John Hay back in 1900, "are false as dicers' oaths when treachery is profitable." Though many now recognize this fact, it rarely gets formal acknowledgement by U.N. A dedicated little man, Dr. T. F. Tsiang, Nationalist China's U.S.-educated delegate to U.N., has been working for almost three years to get it on the record. Last week, at the General Assembly in Paris, he made his final try.

The facts were on Tsiang's side. In May 1945, Harry Hopkins, in Moscow to see Stalin, cabled President Truman: "Stalin . . . made categorical statement that he would do everything he could to promote unification of China under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek." Then in August 1945, Stalin signed with Chiang's China a 30-year friendship treaty pledging that Soviet "support . . . will go exclusively to the National [Chiang] government."

Also on Tsiang's side--for the first time, and belatedly--was the full weight of the U.S. By a vote of 25 to 9, the Assembly found Russia guilty of flouting its treaty.

The victory was a little diluted. Siam amended Tsiang's resolution to condemn Russia for having "failed to carry out" the treaty--Tsiang's phrase had been "violated." Besides there were 24 abstainers, including France and Britain. "Academic," ho-hummed Britain's Sir Gladwyn Jebb, and likely to "open up old wounds." Greece and Turkey were the only Europeans to vote yes.

Said Tsiang afterwards: "I was horrified to see the abstentions. They take a stand against aggression but say the Chinese question is academic. Fantastic." Nevertheless, Stalin's treachery was on the U.N. record at last.

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