793.94/14533: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 26—2:30 p.m.]
619. The Embassy is reliably informed that prior to coming to Chungking on or about December 10 the Generalissimo went to South China where he convoked a conference which was attended by over 200 ranking officers and at which detailed plans were formulated for the defense of northern Kwangtung and of Kwangsi. Chang Fa Kwei was designated as Commander-in-Chief of the South China forces with Yu Han Mou and Li Han Hun, newly appointed Kwangtung Provincial Government Chairman, as vice commanders. The South China forces are reported to comprise 28 regular divisions including 6 central, 12 Cantonese and 10 Kwangsi, in addition to a formidable auxiliary force in the Self Defense Corps. It is anticipated that no serious effort will be made to defend the coastal areas adjacent to Pakhoi and Kwangchowwan or even Nanning and this whole area is now being laid waste and the inhabitants required to evacuate in order to impede Japanese military operations. However, it is expected [Page 435] that strong resistance will be offered if the Japanese endeavor to penetrate deeply into Kwangsi.
Repeated to Peiping for Tokyo.
Chiang Kai Shek left Chungking December 20 to investigate military conditions at Sian and other points in the northwest. It is reported that he will soon return to Chungking. In this connection it is learned that the Chinese will make no strong effort to hold their present Yellow River defenses or Sian, although Hanchung in South Shensi will be defended by powerful forces the nucleus of which is said to be composed of 11 intact and well trained divisions under the command of General Hu Tsung Nan.
It is generally believed in Chungking that the failure of the Japanese military to follow up the capture of Hankow with a concerted drive on Changsha and Hengyang, the center of Chinese resistance in Central China, constituted a repetition of the costly error in strategy committed during the fall of Nanking. The Embassy has received information from official and private sources which discloses that the Chinese military forces were badly demoralized during the fall of Wuhan and Canton and that the Japanese would have met with negligible resistance if they had continued to advance beyond Yochow. However, the present “breathing spell” has enabled the Generalissimo to reorganize his forces and it is generally believed that Japanese penetration into western Hunan and Hupeh will meet with firm resistance.
To the failure of the Japanese to press the military advantages accruing from the fall of Wuhan and Canton [may be?] added another factor of vital import to China’s resistance: namely, the granting of American credits to China and reports of similar British action have been construed by the Chinese as indicating the commencement of action by those powers to prevent Japan from achieving its aims in the Far East, and it now seems clear that this conviction has immensely stimulated and stiffened the Chinese will for prolonged resistance.79