740.0011 Pacific War/3678
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 21, 1944.]
Sir: Referring to the Department’s telegram no. 1584, November 4, 7 p.m.9 requesting the Embassy to obtain more complete information in regard to the “labor camp” at Sian and also information regarding similar organizations elsewhere in China, I have the honor to enclose:10 (a) copy of despatch no. 144 of November 17, 1943, from the Consulate General at Kunming; (b) copy of despatch no. 21 of November 19 from the Secretary on detail at Lanchow; and (c) copy of a memorandum, prepared by the Embassy, based on despatch no. 92 of December 19 from the Consulate at Kweilin, in regard to this subject.
Summary. Mr. Ludden reports that preliminary inquiries fail to reveal the existence of youth labor camps in Yunnan. Informed sources, however, mention such camps in Enshih, Hupeh, under the direction of the Kuomintang and in or near Taiho, Kiangsi.
[Page 392]Mr. Rice states that the inmates of the labor camp at Sian have at times numbered 2,000 but that at present the total is between 700 and 800, most of whom are young and about five per cent of whom are girls. The inmates are said to include Y. M. C. A. secretaries and other Chinese who are not actually radicals but are suspected of being liberals. He states that there has been comparatively little student radicalism in Chinghai, Ninghsia and Kansu Provinces and that in Ninghsia occasional radical students are reportedly imprisoned or shot.
Mr. Service reports that according to reliable information “thought correction” camps exist in at least nine provinces in Kuomintang China. The camps are operated by agents trained by the Central Kuomintang Headquarters and are nominally under the direction of Provincial Tangpu (Party) organizations. Prisoners are questioned by intelligent and well-trained interrogators and while torture is practised it is probable that prisoners are held primarily in order to prevent their communicating their suspected communist convictions to others. Food is said to be poor, reading material is limited to Kuomintang publications and visitors are seldom admitted. Those fortunate enough to be released are threatened with death should they divulge information regarding these camps. Interrogation of one reliable informant, recently an inmate of one such camp, included exhaustive inquiries regarding his relations with Americans and other foreigners. End of Summary.
The Embassy has been reliably informed of the existence of two such camps in the vicinity of Chungking (one near Chingmukuan, 70 li from the city and perhaps the camp mentioned in the enclosed memorandum as being at Hsinkaishih under the direction of the notorious General Tai Li, and the other in the hills across the Yangtze River from Chungking under the direction of the Chungking Garrison Headquarters). The inmates of both of these camps are said to be held in caves which abound in this region and those who may be released after one or two years of detention are reportedly usually broken both in body and in mind. One reliable Chinese informant states that a Chinese woman teacher in a middle school at Tzeliutsing, Szechuan, who was arrested by the Party secret police and brought to the headquarters of the Central Training Corps at Chungking for questioning, became completely insane after two days of grilling. This allegedly innocent victim was then returned to her home at Tzeliutsing without any explanation being given to her family of the circumstances surrounding her arrest or consequent insanity.
The power and influence of the secret police under General Tai Li and of the Kuomintang secret police are such that youth of known radical inclinations are perhaps more apt to be imprisoned or shot outright than to be sent to a camp for “reformation.” Apparently those sent to the camps are for the most part persons who are merely suspected of “incorrect thinking” and who may thus be “cured” thereof as well as serve as an example to others who might be inclined to such [Page 393] beliefs. These camps are evidently a refinement of the Kuomintang, as the Consul at Tihwa states that so far as he is aware such camps do not exist in Sinkiang and that imprisonment is the punishment widely given to those guilty of unorthodox thinking in that province. Additional indications of the Kuomintang inspiration behind these camps is seen in the reported lack of such camps in those provinces where Kuomintang power is least, such as Yunnan, Sikang, Chinghai, Ninghsia, Suiyuan and Kansu.
As Mr. Service’s despatch on this subject named in several places the source of his information, the Embassy has prepared the enclosed memorandum based on his despatch and omitting any reference which might indicate the identity of the informant. Mr. Service and the Consulate General at Kunming are being instructed to destroy their copies of Kweilin’s despatch, as is being done by the Embassy. The Embassy believes that Mr. Service should be commended for his initiative in obtaining such detailed information in regard to the existence of labor camps in China and for the preparation of the despatch reporting that information, which is of considerable interest as depicting a phase of the scene in China about which little has heretofore been known.
Respectfully yours,