REPORT FROM FORMOSA

As a British newsman and diplomatic correspondent, with a high amount of personal as well as academic interest in Formosa and the cast, Mr. Bate has very satisfyingly accomplished the job of writing a broad, analytical report about the island he so aptly describes as the fulcrum of that swaying edifice which is the combined problems of the orient. Though he will be criticized for his opinion that eventual solution should arrive in the form of a natural Sino-Japanese friendship between Chiang's government and Tokyo, his disclosures of the complex of relations- Britain's acknowledgement of Communist China- Australia's marked fear of strong communist influences in the Philippines, China and Indo-China- the vacillations of the United States, are sharply drawn political etchings. The body of his work is an exhaustive portrayal, both vivid and scholastic, of Formosa's military possibilities, economic potentials. An excellent, needed work, characteristic of the best of British journalism.