740.0011 Pacific War/3275: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:10 p.m.]
800. Embassy’s 782, May 25, 7 p.m.69 Acording to an authoritative source, a very highly placed Chinese official in Washington has telegraphed a very high military and political leader here that the American Naval and Military Attachés and the British Military Attaché are reporting to Washington that the situation created by the Jap military operations in western Hupeh is not serious and requesting that pressure be brought upon the Attachés to report affirmatively in regard to the seriousness of the situation. It is disturbing to all of us here that confidential reports should find their way so far afield and with such a result, the implications of which are obvious.
As regards the situation in western Hupeh, it is my understanding that the point of view of our Naval and Military Attachés is in general, that a Jap military operation involving from 50 to 70,000 men has, of course, serious implications especially as Chinese resistance appears to be weak, the Japs are progressing some 18 miles a day and one Jap thrust appears to be directed along the south bank of the Yangtze towards Santowping, sometimes called “the gateway to Chungking” because of the situation there of the principal Chinese fortifications guarding the approach to the Gorges. The Attachés and other observers, however, believe that if the Japs were actually undertaking a drive on Chungking they would necessarily employ a much larger force and would choose a route presenting less obstacles in the way of difficult terrain. The Attachés are inclined to the opinion that the prime [motive?] of the drive in Hupeh (as well as in Hunan) is economic; that is, the clearing of the river to some point west of Ichang and the denial of its use by the Chinese for transportation of produce, the operations in Hunan being designed to encircle and cut off from Free China the great Hunan “rice bowl”. Of course if the fortifications at Santowping are reduced by the Japs they will have made much more open the Yangtze route to Chungking and the Chinese will have suffered an important reverse which may have serious implications for the future.
It is understood that detailed reports on the situation are being despatched daily to their respective departments by the Naval and Military Attachés.
- Not printed.↩