793.94119/472: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:17 p.m.]
622. My 618, December 24, noon. The Chinese press and Central News Agency today published an incomplete version of a speech attributed to General Chiang Kai Shek which was delivered at the weekly memorial meeting of the Central Tangpu in Chungking on December 26.
General Chiang is reported to have referred to the recent statement of the Japanese Prime Minister as a disclosure of Japanese intrigue aimed at the dismemberment of China and to have stated that this and other recent Japanese official utterances have served to give the Chinese people a deeper understanding of Japanese ambitions and have thereby strengthened the determination of the Chinese people to continue resistance without surrender or compromise.
He is also said to have stated that Minister Wang Ching Wei went to Hanoi for medical treatment, that Japanese and German rumors that he is on a mission on behalf of the National Government to discuss peace terms with the Japanese are entirely false and that Mister Wang’s trip has not the slightest connection with National Government or party affairs. General Chiang is quoted as having alluded to Mister Wang’s meritorious service to the state and to have expressed the hope that if Mister Wang had his own views on national policy he should feel free to return and to discuss them with members of the Government and the party.
Repeated to Peiping for mailing to Tokyo.