893.00/14035
Memorandum by the Ambassador in China (Johnson)25
| Conversation: | General Chang Chun, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nelson Trusler Johnson.26 |
I called upon the Minister for Foreign Affairs today to express to him my appreciation for the assistance which the Foreign Office had given to the Embassy in its efforts to evacuate American citizens from Sian. I asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether there was anything that he could tell me in regard to that situation.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs stated that negotiations and discussions were still going on, and that he thought there was some likelihood of success; that the Government was insisting upon obedience by General Yang Hu-cheng to its original decree; and that he [Page 16] thought, from information which had been coming through recently, that General Yang Hu-cheng was more inclined to listen to reason in regard to this matter, and perhaps to show a desire to abide by instructions of the Central Government.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs did not seem to think that the force commanded by the so-called Communists in Shensi amounted to as much of a threat as the papers indicated. He said that if the Sian incident had not occurred it had been estimated that the Communists would have been completely liquidated in another two weeks. He expressed himself as not believing that either Yang Hu-cheng’s forces or Chang Hsueh-liang’s had completely taken up with the Communist cause; otherwise they would constitute a very serious threat indeed.