893.50/277
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 30.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose for the Department’s information a translation of an address12 delivered by Dr. Sun Fo, President of the Legislative Yuan, before a meeting of the Four Northeastern Provinces’ War Aid Association on September 18 concerning the postwar status and development of the Northeastern Provinces.
[Page 740]The address is of interest in that it envisages full control of the provinces by the Central Government, governmental control of all public utilities, governmental ownership and development of all industrial and mining enterprises, governmental ownership of land and the introduction of a collective farming system and mechanized farm production, a practical government monopoly of foreign trade and the encouragement of mass emigration of Chinese to that area. While due allowance must be made for Dr. Sun’s political beliefs in evaluating the program advanced in his address, the possibility of an attempt to put into effect most of the suggestions made by him cannot be overlooked. Many of those suggestions represent the trend toward governmental enterprises and control of trade which has been increasingly evident in China during recent years, and it is not to be expected that the Chinese Government would overlook an opportunity to introduce such measures in an area from which Japanese interests might be expected to be eliminated and in which there would be no other foreign interest of importance.
Chinese editorial comment on September 18, the anniversary of the Mukden Incident, was devoted chiefly to the theme that the present war had its beginning in the Japanese aggression against Manchuria in 1931 and that the expected United Nations victory would result in the end of Japanese military aggression and the return of Manchuria to China, one of whose war aims was the recovery of that area.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩