Private Assurances

"To ease tension in the Formosa area," said Communist Chou En-lai in a speech broadcast from Peking last week, "the-Chinese Government is willing to sit down and enter into negotiations with the U.S. Government . . . The Chinese people have two possible means to liberate Formosa, namely by war or by peaceful means. The Chinese people are willing to strive for the liberation of Formosa by peaceful means, so far as it is possible." This was substantially what Communist Chou had said after Bandung last month and, with its familiar qualifying clauses, seemed hardly calculated to advance the chances of a cease-fire in the Formosa Straits.

But India's fellow-traveling Ambassador Krishna Menon this week came out of Peking, after 30 hours of talks with Chou and Mao Tse-tung, full of feeling that peace was in the air: "The talks were very useful. We can look forward with hope." He added that he thought Red China would release the 15 imprisoned U.S. airmen "very soon," and confidently predicted that U.S.-Red China talks would be set up within 60 days.

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