893.00/13755: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 13—9 a.m.]
605. My 60396 and 604. 1. Chang Hsueh Liang’s troops whose mutiny against the Central Government seems to have been the cause of the detention of Chiang Kai Shek by Chang are said to have made certain demands of Nanking among them being: 1, war against Japan; 2, an alliance with Soviet Russia; 3, admission of Communists to Kuomintang; and 4, moderation of formal constitution instead of dictatorship.
2. Reuter reports Madame Chiang Kai Shek has received at Nanking personal message from Chang Hsueh Liang guaranteeing her husband’s safety.
3. There has been dissension between Chiang and Chang for sometime over the latter’s failure to deal effectively with the Communists in the Northwest and it is possible that the present difficulty is the outgrowth of that failure as well as personal animosity especially in view of the reported appointment by Chiang Kai Shek on December 11 of General Chiang Ting Wen as Commander in Chief of bandit suppression in the Northwest in succession to Chang Hsueh Liang. Marshal Chang has from time to time been charged with sympathetic leanings towards the Communists troops.
4. The revolt and detention of Chiang has created a tremendous sensation in Peiping and it is known that there is great activity in Chinese circles. It is understood that Sung Che Yuan’s attitude towards Nanking has not changed and that his attitude towards communism in the Northwest has not been altered by the new turn of events. Repeated to Tokyo and Nanking.
- Not printed.↩