Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Soong)68
With what has been happening lately, I am afraid you could no longer avoid having a frank heart-to-heart talk with the President, which I am sure he will not misunderstand. As you know, I have to fight continually against demoralizing doubts on the part of my officers, who conclude that American attitude towards China is in essence no different from that held by other nations, that both in the all-important matters of joint-staff conferences and war supplies, China is treated not as an equal like Britain and Russia, but as a ward.
The President has consistently shown himself to be the one great friend of China, and I may say on our part we have been loyally responsive. We have placed Chinese armies under American command, and we have shown every readiness to support American policies, sometimes even against our own judgment. All that we have and all that we are, we truly and unreservedly contribute to the cause of the United Nations.
What a contrast this is to the attitude of the British and Russians who, whenever it concerns their own interests, will not make concessions in the general interest, so that to this day they will not concede to the United States the direction and the location of the Supreme Military Council. The result of this non-cooperation is that there is in existence no organization to formulate and execute over-all strategy, and every country looks to its own immediate interests, so that the Axis is successfully imposing its grand strategy. What a difference there is between our attitude towards the United States and that of Britain and Russia!
If in future the Anglo-American joint staff is not enlarged to include China, and China is kept out of the Munitions Assignments Board, then China would be just a pawn in the game. Gandhi told me [Page 34] when I visited India: “They will never voluntarily treat us Indians as equals; why, they do not even admit your country to their staff talks.” If we are thus treated during the stress of war, what becomes our position at the peace conference? You must insist that we have our own stand, and we have our own independent position to uphold.
- Copy of telegram transmitted to President Roosevelt. Photostatic copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y.↩