893.00/13508: Telegram
The Consul General at Canton (Spiker) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 1—8 p.m.]
Referring to your telegram of May 27, 4 p.m.,4 and in supplement to my telegrams of May 20, 8 p.m. and May 27, 9 a.m.,5 scheduled conference between Southwest leaders and Nanking delegation during the period May 25 to 28, inclusive, was abortive and according to most reliable sources accomplished nothing toward unification. Separate local negotiations by H. T. Tang, Superintendent of Customs, Shanghai, in relation to the adoption by Southwest of national currency believed possibly productive of results due to the perilous state of Southwest currency which today reached new low, paying premium of nearly 65% for Hong Kong dollars.
- 2.
- Civilian leaders Tsou Lu and Hsiao Fo Cheng on pleas of ill-health did not attend conference, such absence generally ascribed to their complete lack of sympathy with the aggressively anti-Chiang Kai Shek platform recently proclaimed by the Southwest purportedly under mandate of Hu Han Min’s alleged will which has been given greatest publicity and prominence as the creed of the Southwest. Tsou Lu, who had booked passage several weeks ago and canceled it after Hu’s death, suddenly left Canton and sailed from Hong Kong on Italian ship for Europe on May 27 accompanied by two leading members of Chung Shan University faculty, ostensibly to attend celebration at Heidelberg University, the Olympic Games, etc. On the day following his departure the press quoted a statement allegedly made to it by Tsou to the effect that his public address of May 4 was expressive of his present political position. It is interesting to note that this address was mainly devoted to the crying primary need of abandonment of factional lines and of unification of all classes in the whole country in order that the entire national energy may be mobilized in resisting Japan, that the address embodies no challenge to Chiang or to Nanking, and that it specifically opposes cooperation with Japan against Communism, this all being in striking contrast to Hu’s alleged will which, while demanding resistance against Japan, lays equal [Page 184] stress on the elimination of Chiang Kai Shek and the suppression of Communism. The final item in Chou’s alleged statement reads as follows: “It is also essential to act with those powers who treat us on a basis of equality for a common struggle.”
- 3.
- A typical press report purporting to come from local official sources as to the results of conference reads as follows: “Canton officials have agreed in principle upon the policy of the Central Government that China is not in a position to resist foreign aggression by war and therefore agreed that the period of extensive preparation for ultimate resistance must be prolonged.” See my comments in part 2 of this telegram to follow.6
- 4.
- The only other statements by the strictly censored local press in relation to the conference were to the effect that certain proposals are being carried back to Nanking by its delegation and that the conference discussed the Whampoa port development scheme.
- 5.
- According to a statement by Yeh Chu Chang, prior to his departure for return to Nanking, matter of place of Hu’s interment has not yet been decided. Local press contains frequent statements as to alleged opposition of Hu’s family on ground that Hu declined to go to Nanking while alive so obviously should not go there when dead. There is a local belief that the disposal of the remains is being used by the Southwest as one of its bargaining points.
- 6.
- Tsou Lu’s departure on May 27 and that of Yeh Chu Chang, Chu Chia Hua and Chu Min Yi on the following day for Nanking without any announcement of the accomplishment of unified measures by that conference, together with the further alarming depreciation of the local currency described in third sentence of this message is interpreted by local observers as indicating that the Southwestern leaders are maintaining a defiant attitude toward Nanking, though some hold that this is a gesture made to secure a better bargaining position.
- 7.
- Part 2 of this telegram follows. This telegram is transmitted to the Department, Peiping and Nanking.