740.0011 European War 1939/14591
The Chinese Embassy to the Department of State 10
Statement by Dr. Quo Tai-chi, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chungking, August 18, 1941
“The Chinese Government and people whole-heartedly welcome and endorse the joint declaration of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill11 on the fundamental aims of the democratic Powers in resistance to aggression, and the aspirations of all peaceful and freedom-loving peoples including the peoples in the Axis countries themselves for a real new world order. China feels all the more gratified inasmuch as the Eight-Point Program is essentially in harmony with the principles of the Kuomintang and its founder’s advocacy of a ‘great commonwealth of nations’.
“The post-war world reconstruction will constitute a task even more difficult than that of winning the war itself. Restoration of freedom to the conquered peoples, full economic collaboration between all nations in the enjoyment of access, on equal terms, to trade and raw materials, in the advancement of living standards, and the establishment of a permanent system of general security will require the supreme efforts and resolute statesmanship of the democracies and their leaders. In this task China is prepared to make full contribution just as she has, for the past four years, made untold sacrifices of her manpower and national resources toward the democratic cause and continues to play her essential part in the world-wide conflict. China believes that the final destruction of the forces of aggression can be most swiftly achieved by first bringing about the defeat of Japan through tightening the ‘encirclement’ of which she herself is the sole architect.”
- Handed to the Secretary of State by the Chinese Ambassador on August 19; for memorandum of the conversation between the Secretary and the Ambassador on that date, see vol. v, p. 708.↩
- For “Atlantic Charter” declaration of August 14, see Department of State Bulletin, December 16, 1941, p. 125.↩