893.50/356½
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 16.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy of despatch No. 8 of September 30, 1943, from the Secretary on detail at Lanchow45 in regard to Chinese hope for American aid in the economic development of northwest China and to certain obstacles to such development.
Mr. Rice’s despatch contains an adequate summary.
It is generally felt that the primary consideration of the Central Government authorities motivating their plans for the economic development of the Northwest is a strategic one: the creation of a buffer region against Soviet Russia. The Soviet withdrawal from Sinkiang and the presence of the Chinese Communists in northwest China have brought sharply to the attention of the Chinese authorities the strategic situation of this territory at a time when circumstances have permitted an extension of Chungking’s authority into a hitherto autonomous area. It is inevitable that the strategic implications would color Chinese thinking and planning with respect to the Northwest. Other considerations, again timely and somewhat urgent, have been the problems presented by the famine situation in Honan where large numbers of famine refugees were either leaving the province or because of their destitute condition required some form of relief. The settlement in the Northwest of these famine victims, who were without land or means, has provided a method by which the areas might become more Chinese in character and at the same time dove-tailed with the buffer region plan of development.
Mr. Rice seems to have given an accurate description of the obstacles to the economic development of this area with which the Chinese are confronted. After the war the Chinese will likely be required to devote themselves to the much more vital and profitable rehabilitation and development of the coastal and central China areas now occupied by the Japanese and it is difficult to believe that the Central Government will be prepared, financially or psychologically, to undertake any real and lasting development of the Northwest for some time to come.
Respectfully yours,
- Edward E. Rice; despatch not printed.↩