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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, February 8, 1957
What is Formosa? How involved is the United States? These are some of the questions we Americans are asking as we hear the word Formosa on newscasts and read more and more about Formosa in newspapers and magazines.
Formosa Important Link in U.S. Defense
Formosa is a semi-tropical island about twice the size of New Jersey lying 90 miles off the China coast. This important island in the western Pacific ocean is separated from the China mainland by the Formosa strait.
Chinese colonists first began to settle Formosa in the 14th century. Efforts by the Japanese, Spanish, and Dutch to move in were short-lived. Three hundred years later, Koxinga, a general loyal to the toppled Ming dynasty, sailed his army to Formosa, and took it over, rather than surrender to the Manchus. Ultimately, the Manchus got control and, despite brief Japanese and French incursions, held on to Formosa until 1895. Then, defeated in war, China ceded Formosa to Japan. The Allies restored the island to China at the end of World War II.
Today, Formosa's approximately 8 million population is made up chiefly of Formosan Chinese, that is, descendants of mainland strains. There are also about 150,000 aboriginal tribesmen (including head-hunters), some few thousand of the 300,000 Japanese who for 50 years ruled the island, and about 1 million anti-Communist Chinese who have fled the main land in the past five years.
The Formosan Chinese are an independent-minded, high-spirited people. They successively—and at times successfully—rebelled against governors imposed on them by the Mings, Manchus, Japanese and in 1947-Nationalist China.
The battle over Formosa is between anti-Communist Nationalist China (National Government of the Republic of China), headed by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and Red China (Chinese People's Republic), run by Mao Tse-tung.
Today, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his army of 500,000 men keep Formosa and a few small islands in the Formosa strait out of the hands of the Red Chinese on the mainland. Formosa, within easy flying distance of Japan, the Philippines, and Okinawa, is the United States' major link in our defense chain of the Far East.
Ex-President Truman explained this in his June 27, 1950, proclamation: "The attack on Korea makes it plain that communism has passed beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent nations and will now use armed invasion and war."
In this same proclamation he pledged to use the U.S. Seventh fleet for defense of Formosa. President Eisenhower has restated this pledge. So if Formosa is attacked, our policy is to fight.
The military importance of Formosa was stated by Gen. Douglas MacArthur when he said "the geographic location of Formosa is such that, in the hands of a power unfriendly to the United States, it constitutes an enemy salient in the very center of our defenses.
On the other hand, the Communists, who are looking outside the Asia mainland for fresh fields to conquer, would like very much to control Formosa, for several reasons. Besides the fact that it would build Communist prestige and be an American defeat, it would solve the Chiang Kai-shek problem and give them complete power. Second, there would remain no representative of freedom to claim the Chinese seat in the United Nations, and the Reds feel the seat would fall to them.
But two things are certain in our Pacific policy today. We are pledged to fight for Formosa and we cannot afford to lose this important island in the Pacific. To the United States, Formosa is the Gibraltar of Asia. Georgia Wallace
If your arms were long enough, if your hands were big enough, you could reach out and scoop up the Kaw valley in one hand. You could cup the river in the creases of your palm and let sand sprinkle between your fingers.
If your arms were long enough
...if your hands were big enough.
If...
Wrap your fingers around Douglas County, then. Catch up the rich blackness of a farmer's soil. Break a plowed surface with a thrust of your hand. Run a finger around a horizon.
Bend light rays to shine on metal towers, glisten from metal tanks, diffuse on a snowy hill. Clear the mists from a morning sky. Make shadows fall on whitened roofs.
Sav. "This is mine."
The World Lies Within the Grasp Of Your Hands
Sav. "This is mine."
Stand on Oread hill and grab what you can. Hold it, clutch it, wring it dry until you have absorbed a night, a morning, another bit of life. Hold it tight and don't forget it.
Then let it go. Push it aside for a great long while. Thrust it somewhere. Use it as a reference. Don't forget it. But let it go.
And when you leave Oread hill and there are other horizons, stand somewhere high where you can embrace a new, wide world, where your arms can grow long and your fingers can run a ring around the earth as far as you can see.
Know, then, that there are other horizons, other pastures reaching for the sky, other orbits that you may see or may never see. But they are there, the way nights are there, the way mornings are there.
Grab them, each of them. Know them, understand them, then let them go for new ones, saying each time:
"This is mine." —Gene Shank
Letters
To the editors:
to the editors.
Mmbe I'm wrong—Either:
1. The benches at the Campanile are uncomfortable.
LITTLE MAN ON CAMPUS by Dick Bibler
2. The photographer stood on
his back, looking doesn't know
hands, legs, tails.
3. He is wearing a black jacket.
3. The appropriate title for the picture could be "topsy turvy thwart."
Respectfully,
David Alan Rux
Graduate
Respectfullv.
More than 50,000 World War II tanks and trucks furnished to NATO nations by the United States have been rebuilt by Germans working for the U.S. Army in Europe.
(Ed. note: You're right. The printer
turned it "topsy-turvy thwart."
University of Kansas Student Newspaper News Room, KU 251 Ad Room, KU 376 Member of the Inland Daily Press association. Associated Collegiate Press association. Represented by the National Advertising Association during Mail subscription rates: $3 a semester or $4.50 a year (add $1 a semester if in Lawrence). Published at Lawrence University during university年 except Saturdays and Sundays. University holidays and examination periods. Entered as second class student from 17 to 18th grade. Post office under act of March 3, 1879
Daily Hansan
Editorial Editor Gene Shank
Ed. Assistants: Elizabeth Wohlgemuth,
Lynda B.
EDITORIAL STAFF
BUSINESS STAFF
Business Mgr. Audrey Homme
Advertising Mgr. Martha Chumbers
Nat. Adv. Mgr. Leonard Jurden
Cir. Mgr. Georgia Wallace
Classified Mgr. James Cazier
Business Adviser Gene Bratton
NEWS STAFF
Executive Editor Lemon Lee
Man Editors: Amy DeYonr Roon Gran-
man Benjamin Hilmer, Jace
News Editor Nancy Neville
Last News Editor Lee Ann Urban
Staff Editor Stanley Stuart
Wire Editor Tom Lyons
Society Editor Mary Bess Stephens
Lettie Society Ed. Irene Connifer
Patrick Todd Ted
News Advisor C. M. Pickett
Across College Campuses
Bad Housing,Red Signs Make Campus News
As second semester begins on college campuses across the nation, students are getting back into the swing of things. At Oklahoma A&M, the administration has banned out-of-state pledge sneaks. Boldly painted red signs saying "There is no God" have shocked students at North Texas State college at Denton, Texas. The Minnesota Daily reports a link between the drop in enrollment at the agricultural college and the bad housing conditions that exist there. And as the parties begin again after final week, coeds at the University of Syracuse received 2 a.m. late permissions.
At Oklahoma A&M the administration has banned out-of-state pledge sneaks, long a fraternity custom at A&M. Advisers and school officials alike pointed out that out-of-state sneaks could bring unfavorable publicity to Oklahoma, the college and the fraternity. They felt in-state trips could be more easily controlled.
The editorial continued saying that religious groups play an important part on the college campus and if he doesn't approve of their activities he does not have to participate but that the marring of public property is another matter.
Students at North Texas State college, Denton, Texas, were shocked recently when on a sidewalk near the library building, in bold red paint, was the sign. "There is no God."
The College paper, "The Campus Chat" decried the incident in an editorial saying, "Every student is an individual, but each collegian is also a North Texan. The performance of one person, whether admirable or not, may either raise or lower the reputation of the school and students in the eyes of others."
The Minnesota Daily reports that the drop in enrollment at the University's Agricultural college is linked to the bad housing on the campus. The report lists four effects of the housing situation:
1. Inadequacies reflect discredit upon the St. Paul campus in the eyes of visitors.
2. Dormitory conditions exert a negative influence on individuals seeking to choose a college curriculum and a college.
3. Present facilities limit the opportunity for optimum co-curricular activities for students now residing in dorms.
4. Limited capacity of dorms restrict number of students living on the campus.
At the University of Syracuse all coeds received 2 a.m. special permission to attend the Junior class "Southern Interlude" dance. Permissions were obtained by attaching a pink slip to the ticket stub from the dance. "Southern Interlude" is the all University function of winter weekend. This year the dance was semi-formal and corsageless.
...Short Ones...
They don't give out Academy Awards for what Dorothy Dandridge's got, but no one will contest that she deserves something for everything she's got.
This week's horse laugh: "I got so excited I burned a big hole in the front of my dress. Yep, the film is that hot. It is a terrific picture!"—Hedda Hopper commenting on "Carmen Jones."