This is not an emotional compulsion but the result of weighing many factors. Among them are:
1. The physical and psychological readiness of the free Chinese. As of the present, the state of preparedness is good, although still lacking in some elements of military hardware.
2. Implications of intelligence from the mainland. The food shortage has worsened. Unrest is at an all-time high. Uprisings and defections have increased sharply. As of now, large segments of the Communist armed forces and millions of civilians could be expected to support an assault aimed at liberation.
3. Aggression in Southeast Asia. Pressures against South Vietnam and Laos have been stepped up. Only the elimination of the Communist potential for aggression in Asia can reverse this trend, and that implies the destruction of Chinese Communism.
4. Possible progress of the Peiping regime toward nuclear capacity. The best-informed experts doubt that the Communist Chinese can become nuclear club members for a long time to come. Yet mistaken judgment could be fatal for civilization as mankind has known it. Mao Tse-tung himself has expressed willingness to sacrifice half of mainland China's population in order to dominate the world.
Emerging from these and other developments is a strong feeling of better "sooner than later."
In the very long run, time does not run with Communism. The solutions offered by the Communists are impossible. They are contrary to human nature and to the hopes of most people for peace and a share of the happiness that the good life can bring.
But for a shorter run, the Communists have opportunities created by the disinclination of others to take a stand on principle and fight for what is right.
In recent addresses, President Chiang Kai-shek has repeatedly and strongly urged the nation to get ready, to summon a rearmament of both moral purpose and physical courage. His words have been echoed by Vice President Cheng Chen and many others.
At the end of April came an important step toward implementation: the government's decision to raise taxes and monopoly prices.
For the next year and two months, this additional revenue will go into the national treasury earmarked for the requirements of defense and counterattack. By the end of that period, and perhaps before, the deficiencies in military equipment will have been remedied.
No one will deny the accompanying dangers of inflation. Yet this plan of pay-as-you-go has less of such peril than any other approach that could be devised. Restraint and austerity can keep inflationary tendencies under control.
The increases cover the board of the economy. Yet attempts have been made not to interfere with economic growth. Some specific exemptions have been made, and the corporate income tax will remain unchanged. Amounts also have been graduated, ranging from 20 to 50 per cent of the previous amount levied in accordance with the category, the ability to pay, and the effect on the whole economic picture.
Neither counterattack sentiments nor the larger military budget mean that the mainland will be regained tomorrow. What they do promise is a reduction of the further time for waiting to the minimum compatible with preparations and chances for success.
The President, the Vice President and other government leaders have continuously emphasized preparedness—and that is the real concern of the new assessments. If a state of readiness can be achieved, the moment of supreme opportunity will not be lost. It is the full understanding of this point that has brought widespread support for the pain of higher taxes and the austerity that must follow payment of the new bill.
The month just passed also has been marked by a tightening of China's international position—timed to influence United Nations activity that can be expected less than six months from now.
Both African and Latin American realities have been carefully analyzed. China has made its bids carefully but sincerely, and the results have been highly gratifying to the government and to such closely interested allies as the United States.
Gains in Africa have been especially dramatic. Only last fall, some feared that the Brazzaville bloc would turn against China and that the representation heavens would fall around free Chinese ears. That was not the case. Still, much remained to be done in winning African friends and in convincing them that the Chinese Communists are the enemies of African freedom and independence. These are some of the specific gains:
Diplomatic relations established with 14 African countries.
A visit to Taiwan by President Philibert Tsiranana, the first African chief executive ever to see China.
Agricultural missions dispatched to Liberia and Libya. These are not of the top-hat variety, but take the form of working farmers helping Africans to grow more rice and other crops. Similarly, 25 Africans have come to Taiwan for six months of farm training, most of it in the fields.
These programs truly bring people together with people. If that concept has the value claimed by its promoters, China will have many new friends by the time the next U.N. vote rolls around.
People also have spoken to people in connection with countless visitations by African and Latin American officials and journalists, and by various missions that China has dispatched to the two areas. Not a day has gone by without some augmentation of such undertakings.
In the Asian region itself, China was drawing closer together with such countries as Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines and Thailand—to mention only those that were in the news most frequently.
Ku Cheng-kang, who heads the Asian peoples' Anti-Communist League, China chapter, was in Tokyo to discuss the future of Japan's chapter with former Premier Nobusuke Kishi. APACL's 1962 convention will be held, in Japan next October, the first such meeting ever conducted there. A special meeting was convened in Seoul in mid-May.
Korean and Thai missions arrived in China with almost train-schedule regularity. Almost every conceivable enterprise of mankind was involved—with greatest emphasis on regional solidarity and cooperation.
Laos leaders came in May in their quest for a united front against Pathet Lao aggression. They found a sympathetic ear in China, which frequently has suggested that an anti-Communist alliance of Asian nations could mark the end of Communist territorial aggrandizement throughout the area.
If China suffered a poignant loss during April, lit was the retirement of Vice Admiral Roland Smoot as commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command.
Admiral Smoot served for more than four years, and his tour included the trying period when the offshore islands were under Communist saturation-level shelling. His friendship and his assistance never faltered. He is a fighting man of whom both America and China can be deeply proud.
In his farewell press conference, Admiral Smoot observed that he could not speak out on all subjects now-but that he intended to be heard "loud and often" in the years to come. Those who know him and his views are left in no doubt that he will support the Republic of China to the hilt in such policies as defense of the offshore islands and the recovery of the lost territory on the mainland.
Sober moods for the month were set by President Chiang Kai-shek in his Easter testimony and by Madame Chiang in her "Meditation" on the same occasion.
Both are devout Christians.
President Chiang likened "the wonders of the Cross and the meaning of the Resurrection" to "the revolutionary struggle for our national recovery and world salvation."
The President did not mince words. In his view, Christ suffered and gave up earthly existence in "his mission of fraternity, equality, liberty and a paradise of well-being and peace on earth."
Equating Satan with the evil wrought by the Communists, he advance the premise that free Chinese must be prepared to die as Christ died—in the cause of righteousness.
"Once the measure of the Communist iniquity is full and the people no longer can tolerate it," he said, "we shall fulfill our mission of counteroffensive and national recovery for the sake of our national existence and world peace."
Madame Chiang also spoke of sacrifice for a cause that transcends life on this earth.
She recalled an unprepossessing, lonely, introverted youth who won posthumously the Victoria Cross for what he did in Kohima, Burma, during World War II.
From the memorial now standing at Kohima, she quoted these words:
"'When you go home, tell them of us, and say.
For your tomorrow we gave our today.'''
Madame Chiang then concludes her meditation: "With humility of heart, I, too, should like to be among those who for posterity's tomorrow gave their today."
Both the President's and First Lady's messages gave strong indication that the demands of forthcoming counterattack are much in their minds. Judging by both press and the tenor of popular behavior, the same was true of the rank and file of Chinese people.
From the mainland came intelligence that was encouraging in its indication of increased Communist failure, disconcerting in its reflection of the suffering and martyrdom visited upon millions of Chinese people.
Refugees fleeing to both Hongkong and Macao were markedly on the increase. All told the same story: less and less food, more and more restrictions, a life of hell and without hope. All agreed: far better dead than Red, and many paid that supreme price under Communist guns.
Appropriations of the Free China Relief Association were doubled. Some 1,000 students will be brought to Taiwan for technical training, and other refugees will be accepted as homes and employment can be found for them.
FCRA pointed out that contrary to representations from Hongkong, more than 72,000 refugees have been accepted here in the last decade.
The doors of Taiwan are not closed—but because of overpopulation and especially because of the excess farm population, they cannot be thrown wide open to all who wish to leave Hongkong or Macao.
Some bitterness was expressed that the Hongkong authorities had deported refugees to the mainland, and allegedly had beaten more than a score of Chinese before deportation to Taiwan.
Behind the scenes, attempts were being made to work out such problems. British recognition of Peiping does not imply the concomitant of Hongkong affection for the Communist regime. The British and British-Chinese of Hongkong are well aware that permanence for Communism will mean an end of life as it has been lived under the British flag.
But above all, the mounting tide of refugees gave undeniable proof that the masses of the mainland are fed up, that they will flee if they can and resist if they can't. With scarcely an item of disagreement, both reportorial and intelligence pictures of continental China were depictions of hungry people in search of anti-Communist revolution.
APRIL closed without appointment of a new U.S. ambassador to Taipei.
However, there was no doubt that relations between China and the United States remained essentially unchanged, as attested by Assistant Secretary of State Averell Harriman.
Whatever the specific views of individual Americans, both U.S. policy and public opinion favor the liberation of the mainland.
That is an essential implication of the U. S. policy of not recognizing Peiping and of adamantly opposing admission of the Chinese Communists by the United Nations.
As the months to come lead toward the implementation of current programs for mainland recovery, it will be the task of Chinese officials to explain the position of this country and its people to their American counterparts. The requirement is not for a "friendly" U.S. ambassador—that is assured by the friendship of the two countries—but for one who can report the deep-running currents of the Far East and persuade Washington to act on them in time and effectively.
For the survival of free Asia and the protection of the United States, the question is not one of when, but of "how soon" the crucial victory can be won.