793.94/12985: Telegram
The Ambassador in France (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 10—7:45 a.m.]
740. Sun Fo, President of the Legislative Yuan, lunched with me alone yesterday and in the course of a long conversation made the following statements:
He was confident that China could continue to resist Japan for another year at least. In England there had been talk of mediation. He believed that no offer of mediation at the present time could have any chance of success but thought that by the end of another 12 months the Japanese would find themselves in such difficulties that they would be seeking mediation by England and the United States.
As a result of his lengthy visit to England he had the impression that while the British did not desire to see Japan overwhelm China, they also did not desire to see Japan defeated because they feared that the defeat of Japan would mean the domination of China by the [Page 165] Soviet Union. He asserted that the Chinese Communist leaders were now cooperating in full loyalty with Chiang Kai Shek and expressed the opinion that the Chinese Communists were Chinese patriots first and Communists second. There was no danger of communism in China.
He said that the Russians had furnished China with munitions to date costing approximately 150,000,000 Chinese dollars. They had not asked China for any payments on these purchases and indeed had shipped some of the munitions even before China had promised to pay for them. The road across Sinkiang had been kept open all winter by an army of snow shovelers. There were 175,000 coolies working now on the road from Burma into the interior of China and he could assure me that within 2 months this road would be capable of bearing not merely light supplies but also trucks carrying planes and the heaviest cannon.
Sun Fo said that the chief worry of his Government at the moment was the position of the currency. China did not need money for the purchase of war supplies but a currency stabilization loan or some other form of assistance for the stabilization of Chinese currency would be of immense help. He asked me if I thought there was any possibility of the Chinese Government obtaining assistance from the Government of the United States or from private American financial interests for this purpose. I said that I could not pretend to be sufficiently conversant with the subject to give him an authoritative answer but that it was my decided impression that the Government of the United States had no funds which could be used for this purpose and that it seemed unlikely that private bankers would be interested.
Sun Fo is leaving tomorrow for China via Moscow. He described to me in detail the 6-hour conversation he had with Stalin on his recent visit to Moscow. He said that Stalin had assured him that he knew that China was fighting Russia’s battle as well as her own; that it was the ultimate objective of the Japanese to capture the whole of Siberia as far as Lake Baikal; that China would continue to receive all possible assistance from Russia in the form of munitions, airplanes and other supplies; that the Soviet Union would not, however, intervene militarily in the war. Stalin was apprehensive that Germany might attack the Soviet Union if the Soviet Union should make war on Japan. Stalin also felt that neither Great Britain nor the United States would permit Japan to be crushed by the Soviet Union.