893.00/14731
Memorandum by Mr. George Atcheson, Jr., of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs 75
In a personal letter from Chungking dated April 10, 1941 from Major McHugh, American Naval Attaché to China, there is contained comment in regard to difficulties with the Chinese Communists and in regard to the question of peace talk and defeatist sentiment as follows:
“The local situation is relatively calm. The Communists are quiet at the moment. There are reports that the rank and file do not agree with their leaders in their efforts to find a compromise with Chungking. Whether this is true I do not know. I doubt if there is a real basis for any compromise since the ultimate aim of the Communists is a completely new Government controlled entirely by them and since the turn every misfortune of the Government into propaganda for their cause. They specialize in spreading discontent which, in my opinion, is what communism mainly consists of in this country. They have been very clever in their work and and have attracted many foreign sympathizers, including most of the British Embassy, for it is easy to find fault with this Government, especially in war time. But I do not think they will succeed in breaking this Government, nor do I think this friction is quite as important as Edgar Snow, Agnes Smedley, Carlson and others would have it. I understand Snow has just gotten out a book in which he advocates American aid for China, but stipulates that it should go to the soldiers at the front and the common people behind the lines rather than to the bureaucrats in Chungking, think it could be easily demonstrated that such an argument boils down to a thesis that we should set up a puppet show of our own here in competition with the Japs, insisting however that ours is a righteous one. Anybody who professes to know China knows that it cannot be done and anyone who knows the U. S. A. knows that we are the last people to attempt such a thing.
[Page 495]“As for alleged peace talk and defeatist sentiment, such again is Communist propaganda. There is no doubt about it that these people have moments of weariness and despair; such is perfectly human. But the minute that we make them a loan or the President speaks and says ‘China has asked for help and China shall have help’, the barometer shoots up again. In the meantime, I have never encountered any sentiment, even guardedly, for making peace and least of all in the Generalissimo who very definitely is still the number one man in this country. I do not think the old boy has ever even thought of it.”
- Noted by the Secretary of State.↩