Office of the Historian

Roosevelt Papers

Memorandum by the Commanding General, Army Service Forces (Somervell)1

[Chungking, 30 October, 1943.]

The Gen asked me to convey the following message.2

Dr. T. V. Soong advised3 that President would like to meet the Generalissimo some time between November 15 and December 154 and that he would see Stalin either before or after he sees the Generalissimo. The Generalissimo says that now the Peoples Political Council is over, if5 given reasonable notice he will be glad to meet the President6 before his meeting with Stalin. If for whatever reason the President cannot see the Generalissimo before his meeting with Stalin the Generalissimo wishes to postpone the meeting until some other time convenient to both parties. He would like the President to advise as to7 whether it would be desirable for him to meet with Mr. Churchill and the President together or whether he should see the President alone whenever the meeting takes place.

  1. Apparently prepared during Somervell’s trip to China, and handed by Somervell to Roosevelt, in Washington, November 5, 1943. The source text, on plain paper without any letterhead, is typewritten, with handwritten additions and changes, as indicated in ensuing footnotes. A copy sent by Somervell to Hopkins on November 5, 1943, is typewritten on stationery of Stilwell’s headquarters, is dated “30 October, 1943”, and is stamped “Secret”. The typing of the copy sent to Hopkins conforms to the revised phrasing of the source text (i. e., the introductory paragraph is typewritten, the opening words of the main paragraph are “Dr. T. V. Soong reports that”, etc.), except that what appears as “Gen” on the source text appears as “General” on the copy sent to Hopkins, and the letters “issimo” are added, in an unidentified handwriting.↩
  2. This sentence is handwritten.↩
  3. The word “advised” is changed to “reports”, in handwriting.↩
  4. The words “some time between November 15 and December 15” are crossed out, in handwriting.↩
  5. Between the words “if” and “given”, the word “convenient” is typewritten and is crossed out with typewritten “x’s”.↩
  6. After the word “President”, the words “at any time” are inserted, in handwriting.↩
  7. The words “as to” are crossed out here and the word “to” is inserted before the word “advise”, in handwriting.↩