740.0011 Pacific War/3392a: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (Atcheson)
1152. Following are paraphrased excerpts of an article by Rodney Gilbert which appeared in the August 16 issue of the New York Herald Tribune: Baldwin has made himself a sounding board for all the idle gossip about Chinese military ineptitude that have filtered into Washington. If the drives into unoccupied China from which the Japanese come tumbling back with great loss of life and equipment are simply “reconnaissance forays” a map of the present position in China will show that they suffer great inconveniences and dangers, a situation which Gilbert defies the strategists to explain. From free choice, according to the absurd theory represented in Baldwin’s article, the Japanese do without rich sources of materials such as tungsten, tin, antimony, et cetera, which one would suppose that their war industries would be glad to have. According to this “poisonous nonsense” the Japanese have been in control of the termini of 3 trunk railroads for 5 years but have been content to let the Chinese remain in possession of the middle sections. Listing the widespread areas of unoccupied China such as Yunnan, sections of eastern and central China, Hunan, et cetera, occupation of which might reasonably be expected to profit and strengthen Japan, Gilbert points out that nothing stands in the way of such occupation but Chinese soldiery, in encounters with which the Japanese have had some of their “invaluable training”. He makes it clear that, while Chinese resistance may not be of a character to appeal to some types of western military mind, it has nevertheless been an effective embarrassment and barrier to Japan, is now, and will be in the future if supplies can be brought into China.