An End to Rumors

For several months, rumors that the Chinese Nationalists and the Red Chinese were about to get together have swept the Far East. The rumors suited the Chinese Reds fine. Premier Chou Enlai, in private talks with foreign visitors, no longer talked of "traitor" Chiang Kai-shek and his "clique," but indicated blandly that he would welcome negotiations with Chiang himself. He even hinted that Chiang Kai-shek would be offered the title of marshal if only he would give in.

In Hong Kong rumors centered around the head of a Chinese journalist named Tsao Chu-jen, who has a reputation for being both anti-Communist and anti-Kuomintang. Tsao had known many prominent Chinese on both sides before the Nationalists were driven from the mainland, had written a book about the generalissimo's eldest son, Chiang Ching-kuo. Believing that there was no future for an independent Formosa, and that the best thing for all Chinese was a negotiated settlement with the Communists, he got an encouraging go-ahead from Peking, then wrote to Chiang Ching-kuo, the generalissimo's son, in Taipei. "In this time of emergency, I have something important to tell you," he wrote, and he asked Chiang Ching-kuo to send a mutual acquaintance, whom he named, to Hong Kong. "Don't let this timely opportunity slip away," he pleaded. Tsao got no answer, wrote another letter urging "there is something very secret to discuss." After two more months of silence, he tried again: "Certain quarters have asked me to convey to you a few words for your careful consideration," he wrote. "I request you again . . . not to allow this great and timely opportunity to slip by." Last week several London newspapers broke out with a rash of rumors of Peking-Taipei negotiations. One story had "General" Morris ("Two Gun") Cohen, a former bodyguard of Sun Yat-sen now visiting Peking, as the intermediary; another had Chiang Ching-kuo pushing the negotiations. At week's end Chiang Ching-kuo had had enough. "The rumors published this week are malicious fabrications," said Chiang Ching-kuo in a written statement that seemed to exclude any likelihood that the Peking Communists would or could deal with him. "Communists are liars and devils. You cannot talk with the devil. It is my ardent belief that to solve the Communist problem, the only way is to eliminate Communism."

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