893.50/346
The Ambassador in China ( Gauss ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 14.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Embassy’s despatch no. 1375, July 22, 1943 in regard to the Northwest Reconstruction Investigation Group and to enclose a copy of Tihwa’s despatch no. 39, September 9, 194332 on this subject.
Summary: The Group of over 20 members, arrived at Tihwa on August 11 by automobile, proceeded to Ining (Kuldja), returned to Tihwa, departed for Kashgar on September 5, and are expected back in Tihwa in mid-October. The leader, Dr. Lo Chia-lun (concurrently Supervisory Commissioner designate for Sinkiang), returned to Chungking about September 4, assumably to attend the Central Executive Committee meeting, but will probably go again to Sinkiang to assume his supervisory duties. The members of the Group (whose names and titles are appended to the despatch) are men of standing in their respective fields and their trip should result in the collection of useful data. The local press has evinced little interest in the party. The one pertinent editorial might be interpreted to mean that Kuomintang officials are welcome in Sinkiang only if they are in position to benefit the province. Two other investigation groups are now in Sinkiang: one of scientists from the Academia Sinica and the other—a possible rival of the Northwest Reconstruction Investigation Group—the Investigation Group of the Sun Yat Sen Society. Kuomintang postwar planning is generally impractical, assuming as it does that implementation of the plans evolved will be effected, apparently [Page 870] gratis, by the victorious United Nations, especially the United States.33
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed. O. Edmund Clubb was Consul at Tihwa.↩
- In a memorandum dated December 14, 1943, Granville O. Woodard of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs pointed out that Consul Clubb’s despatch “includes the following interesting footnote: ‘One can already discern in contemporary Kuomintang thought the outlines of an argument which may get greater emphasis in the post-war reconstruction period: i. e., China has had restored to it a legal international equality, but its subjection for a century to “imperialistic domination” has retarded its economic development and strict justice requires that in compensation it shall be given economic equality as well, that is, that the economically advanced nations shall contribute of their power and goods until the Chinese economy is brought up to the general level of their own. This argument of course has no reference to natural resources, ratio of population to land, and other economic factors which would receive attention in a scientific consideration of the subject’.”↩