740.0011 Pacific War/11–1144
The Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Rice) to the Ambassador in China (Gauss)18
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch to the Embassy no. 55, October 4, 1944, in regard to the state of Chinese military forces (then under T’ang En-po) in Honan province, and further to report on the subject of conditions in that province.
Much of Honan province has remained, since the Japanese spring offensive of 1944, in a state bordering on chaos. An informant whom I consider very reliable passed through that province in October, traveling from Chienshow, at the Honan–Anhwei border, to Nanyang, in southwestern Honan. He states that the homes of local residents all along the route between those two towns have been quite thoroughly looted by the Chinese soldiery—in some places the people no longer had left even the simplest vessels for cooking food. From soldiers with whom he spoke he gathered that many weapons had fallen into the hands of Honan peasants when the latter turned against their own troops during the Japanese offensive of last spring.
Many of the peasants who have come into possession of weapons appear to have turned bandit. The informant himself traveled across Honan with a caravan of 400 carts utilized by merchants and fellow-travelers; like almost all persons now crossing Honan, they had hired an armed guard of Chinese regular troops. This guard was composed of 120 men divided into two groups of sixty each and armed with rifles and machine guns. While traveling at night the rear guard encountered about twenty bandits who were armed only with rifles [Page 194] and with whom the guards may well have been in league, for the latter fled precipitously. As a result, the bandits obtained loot worth many millions, the informant states. In northern Honan conditions of law and order are reported to be similar, with banditry flourishing.
Maladministration by officers and lack of discipline of troops, which Chinese freely admit contributed to the loss by the Central Government of much of Honan to the Japanese, also create conditions favorable to the growth of Communist influence in that province. According to several reports, Communist guerrillas are slowly filtering in from north of the Yellow River, subduing robber bands and organizing the peasantry. A foreigner who recently arrived at Sian from Yenan reports that the Communists apparently expect that with the expulsion of the Japanese from China they will themselves be found in possession of most of north China’s countryside; viewing conditions in Honan, it would not seem strange if they turned out to be correct in such expectation.
Respectfully yours,
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in China without covering despatch; received December 1.↩