740.0011 European War, 1939/17596
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Under Secretary of State (Welles)
The Chinese Ambassador called to see me this afternoon at his request.
The Ambassador commenced the conversation by saying that he had called to see the Secretary of State last Tuesday and in the course of his conversation77 at that time had indicated the regret and disappointment [Page 711] of the Chinese Government that some favorable and important reference to China was not made as a part of the announcements which resulted from the meeting between the President and the Prime Minister of England.
The Ambassador said that he had telegraphed to his Government the very friendly reference which Secretary Hull had made to China in the course of his conversation, but that nevertheless opinion in Chungking remained greatly disappointed. The Ambassador said that he had no doubt that in part this was due to the fact that Chungking was now to a very great extent isolated from the rest of the world. He said that Japanese bombing of Chungking had been almost continuous during a good many days and on several occasions had lasted more than fifteen hours during each twenty-four hour period. He said that both official work and ordinary business had naturally had to be suspended to a very considerable extent and that with rising prices and other unfortunate developments in their domestic economy, morale was not good.
The Ambassador then said that he had today received a telegram from his Foreign Minister of which he had brought with him a portion for my information. Dr. Hu Shih then gave me the excerpt from the telegram in question which is attached herewith.78
I read the message and said that, animated solely by a desire to be of assistance to China and to have this Government take such action as might within its power be helpful to China, it seemed to me that the suggestion contained in this message was not in the interest of the Chinese Government itself. I said that the approaching Moscow conference was not a joint staff conference but was a conference which was going to be held primarily for the purpose of enabling the United States and British Governments more accurately to determine what the Soviet Union’s most vital and pressing needs might be in the way of military matériel and other goods directly related to the Soviet war effort. I said that the whole conference hinged upon the assistance which might thus be rendered by Great Britain and the United States to the Soviet Union in that particular field. I said that if China were included in the conference, it would seem to me that China would be placed in a completely subordinate and subsidiary position inasmuch as China was not able to furnish assistance of this character to the Soviet Union but was actually receiving assistance from the Soviet Union.
As a matter of fact, I said, the reason why the mission to be headed by General Magruder was being sent to Chungking was for exactly the same purpose, and when General Magruder’s mission arrived in China the members of that mission, together with the members [Page 712] of the British military mission and the officials of the Chinese Government, would discuss exactly the same problems as those which were to be discussed at Moscow, and it seemed to me that what would be far more in the interest of China would be for it to be made clear by the United States and British Governments that the sending of their respective missions to Chungking was for the identical purpose as that for which missions were being sent to Moscow. The Ambassador immediately said that he fully agreed with what I had said and that he thought his Government’s suggestion had been ill-advised. He said that he would request, however, most urgently that as much publicity as possible along the lines I had suggested be given by this Government to the Magruder mission before it left the United States so that his own Government and his own people might realize the importance of the task entrusted to that mission.
I said to the Ambassador furthermore that I could assure him that during the conversations in which I had participated during the meeting between the President and the Prime Minister, the subject of China and the assistance which could be given to China and the steps which could be taken in the interest of China formed as considerable a portion of the subjects that were discussed as any other matter that came up for discussion. I said I hoped that he would make it clear to his Government that the question of China was uppermost in the minds of those who had participated in these conversations.