893.00/14477: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received 5:01 p.m.]
615. Embassy’s 611, November 25, 2 p.m.,17 rumored changes in Cabinet. As explained to the Embassy, when Chiang Kai Shek replaced Kung as President of the Executive Yuan (in order to consolidate [Page 327] closely the military and civil branches of the Government), all Cabinet officers submitted formal letters of resignation and all have been rejected. The Minister[s] of Foreign Affairs, War, and Communications are reported however genuinely to desire to resign, the first for health reasons and the others presumably because of criticisms. Apparently the replacement of Kung with Soong in the Ministry of Finance was the only change seriously considered by General Chiang. The weight of evidence is that Kung was retained in spite of ill health because Soong aspired to greater authority in the Government than Chiang wished to give him. Other changes may have been avoided in order to obviate possible inference that the loss of Nanning had occasioned them.
Repeated to Shanghai, Peiping. Shanghai please repeat this telegram and our 611, November 25, 2 p.m., to Tokyo.
- Not printed.↩