End of a Mission

For more than a month George Catlett Marshall had stood by in China, awaiting release from his year-long mission: to mediate a compromise conclusion of China's civil war. This week President Truman recalled him to Washington. The official reason: "to report in person the situation in China." The real reason: to pave the way for resumption of normal diplomatic relations with Nanking.

General Marshall himself gave the signal for his return. His delicate tasks had won him respect and affection from both Communist and Kuomintang leaders, but his mission had been almost hopeless from the start. In recent months, it had been put beyond the pale of possibility by Nationalist military successes and the stubbornness of China's Communists. Still, George Marshall, the good soldier, wanted to see it through. When China's new constitution was signed and sealed a fortnight ago, his mission was over.

The U.S. made another move on the Far Eastern chessboard. In a quietly firm note to Moscow and Nanking, it asked for a speedy end to Soviet control of the Chinese port of Dairen and the Chinese Changchun Railway--and a speedy reopening of both to world traffic.

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