Britain’s recognition of the Chinese Communist Government is, in Mr [Christopher] Mayhew’s apt formula, “an acknowledgment of fact, not a mark of approbation”. It is hardly possible to quarrel with the decision as such, which was taken on the unanimous recommendation of the British representatives in Asia [at the Colombo Conference of Commonwealth Foreign Ministers]. The only question is whether it was rightly timed. It would have been greatly preferable to move in step with the United States. On the other hand, further delay would have put us out of step with India and Pakistan who in this context are no less important partners than America: and the delay, to judge from the present state of United States public and Congressional opinion, might have been lengthy if we had decided to wait for America. Meanwhile, we must be grateful for the good sense and political courage of President Truman, who last week scotched the dangerous political agitation which had clamoured for an American twelfth-hour intervention in China on behalf of the lost cause of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
One fact not to be overlooked is that we know nothing whatever of the psychology or present temper of the Communists. All indications are that the extreme fanatics led by Liu Shao-chi, head of the trade union movement and second most powerful man in Peking, are now in the saddle; and their temper is not likely to be improved by recent events in Formosa and by the prospective Anglo-American combination to build up South-East Asia as an anti-Communist stronghold.
Key quote
“I have seldom listened to a speech of mine without learning something.”
Bonar Thompson, Hyde Park orator
Talking point
The new Tarzan, Lex Barker, is said to be, in private life, a gifted artist in oils and charcoal, who “enjoys smoking a pipe”, speaks fluent French, and “understands” Italian and Spanish. He is not called upon to display any of these gifts in Tarzan’s Magic Fountain, but his English vocabulary seems to be an advance on Johnny Weissmuller’s, and his arboreal work is impeccable.
CA Lejeune reviews Tarzan’s Magic Fountain