"In Error"

There are many interesting facets to the shipment of goods to Communist countries, observed Under Secretary of State Herbert Hoover Jr. in closed session testimony to the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. "Not the least of the most interesting is the fact, for instance, that the Chinese Nationalists are shipping to the Communist Chinese quite a number of millions of dollars worth of goods every--and I emphasize every--year ..."

Last week, after Hoover's uncharacteristically strong statement was made public, he was summoned before the committee again, had to admit that the Under Secretary of State had not known what he was talking about. Hoover's State Department knows of no direct trade between Formosa and Red China; Hoover's State Department knows only that some $250,000 worth of Nationalist Chinese exports to British Hong Kong (Chinese medicines, camphor, citronella, etc.) were transshipped during 1955 to the Communists. When U.S. Senators and Chinese Nationalist diplomats expressed consternation, Herbert Hoover politely withdrew. His statement, he said last week, was "in error." He added: "There is no evidence of direct commercial contact between Nationalist China and Communist China, or of a trade in strategic items directly or indirectly . . . Parenthetically, I know of no more loyal ally of the U.S."

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