Now that the visit of the Labour Party delegation to China is over, the amount of harm and good it has done is easier to assess. It has, of course, been exploited to the full for Chinese propaganda. In the broadcasts and articles disseminated by Peking, with their great influence in South-East Asia, the line is that the Labour delegates were there as the spokesmen of the British masses to marvel at the progress of China under Communism. In the United States, where the origins of the visit have been little understood, it has harmed Anglo-American relations at a delicate moment.

Yet some good, also, may result from the visit. The Chinese sense of isolation in a hostile world, so useful to her rulers, may have been somewhat lessened, and Mr. Attlee’s common-sense views should have made Mao Tse-tung aware of the real solidarity of the Anglo-American alliance, despite Mr. Bevan’s remarks in Tokyo on Friday.

Perhaps more important, the Labour delegation’s visit, together with the newspaper reports of it, will do something to remove the aura of magic – black or white – which surrounds Communist China and to let some light into the obscurantism of the opposing American and British “China lobbies.”

Key quote



“This is the most unheard of thing I have ever heard of.”

Senator McCarthy

Sayings of the week

Talking point



Patna, September 4. – Mr. Nehru to-day began a personal survey from the air of the flood-stricken north-eastern provinces of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam and West Bengal.

Nehru flies over flood areas, foreign news