893.60/65: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Vincent) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 30—9:28 a.m.]
624, Generalissimo Chiang, addressing newly formed Industrial Reconstruction Planning Conference on 27th, made a strong plea for close collaboration between the Government and industrial circles. He asked why the Chinese with vast territory and rich potentialities had not progressed industrially whereas the Japanese have made such remarkable progress. Answering his question he said that the backwardness of Chinese industry was due to its failure to link up with politics. “We must realize that the developments of industry largely depend upon the collaboration of the Government; in other words industry and politics must go hand-in-hand.” He said that previously there was not only no coordination between the industrialists and the Government but none even among the industrialists themselves [Page 852] and advised that the present Conference offered an opportunity to overcome this great impediment to the development of industry and to study and understand each other’s problems. He concluded by emphasizing that all phases of industrial reconstruction should be motivated by a desire for the realization of the principles of San Min Chu I.16a
- The “Three people’s Principles” of Sun Yat-sen.↩