FORMOSA BEACHHEAD

Geraldine Fitch has picked a formidable subject in tackling the current happenings in China and Formoss, and the State Department's relations thereto. Mrs. Fitch takes issue with those policies. She feels that Chiang Kai-Shek has been a sage, beneficent leader and that the United States has made a profound mistake in neutralizing him. A great deal can be said for her viewpoint, but it could be said more judiciously than here. Her opinions are stated as dogma; she flails her opponents in unladylike fashion; her syllogisms often reach conclusions she desires instead of logical ones; she falls into the omnipresent pit of finding her opponents guilty until proved innocent; she cites single instances as proof positive of what she states as general truths. For those who disagree with her findings the book will offer little. For those who agree in advance, the book will offer unlimited satisfaction (mixed, perhaps, with some embarrassment at her method of attack). For the person who wishes to weigh the evidence on both sides of the question, the book contains some valuable information which can be sifted from what can only be characterized as shabby editorializing.