893.00/15282
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 2.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy of a memorandum of February 14, 1944, written by Second Secretary John S. Service,67 on detail to General Stilwell’s staff, reporting a conversation with Madame Sun Yat-sen regarding her position vis-à-vis the Kuomintang and other current political questions.
Summary of Memorandum. Madame Sun Yat-sen has been bluntly told that she will not be permitted to accept an invitation recently received from “several organizations” to visit the United States. (Apparently these organizations are relief committees which support her work in China.) Madame Sun ascribed the refusal to the strong disapproval of her family and high Kuomintang officials to the publication in Reynold’s Weekly, a British Labor magazine, of a report that she had sent a message to organizations in the United States appealing for the removal of the blockade against the Chinese Communists in order that they may receive medicine and other supplies and be given an equal opportunity to fight Japan. Several high Kuomintang officials called on her and upbraided her for “spreading baseless rumors”, “appealing to foreigners” and “washing China’s dirty linen in the foreign press”. She admitted that she had written to American friends in regard to the blockade but pointed out that her views in this regard have long been known and that her primary interest was in getting relief to the Communist-controlled areas.
In connection with other questions of current importance in the Chinese political scene, she commented that General Feng Yu-hsiang has not yet received “permission” to visit Kunming, that General Hsueh Yueh (Commander of the 9th War Zone) was very dissatisfied, that General Pai Chung-hsi (Deputy Chief of Staff) was not happy, that Dr. T. V. Soong (Minister for Foreign Affairs) was “very discouraged” and that President Chiang Kai-shek was “nothing but a dictator”. She described the close contact between the puppet officials and the Chungking administration and remarked that many Chinese in power had no desire to prosecute the war actively. Madame Sun’s position is now a strained and difficult one. End of Summary.
It is believed that Madame Sun has heretofore been restrained in her comment on developments in China perhaps both through a sense of loyalty to the nation and to “the family” and for fear of placing herself in a position where she would be able to be of less assistance to liberal elements in China. It has been said that she feared that were she to talk or write freely liberal contacts to which she now has access would be denied her and such persons might be unfortunate enough to suffer from the attention of the secret police organizations. The bitterness displayed in her conversation with Mr. Service was [Page 342] also noted by an American newspaper correspondent at Chungking who had an interview with Madame Sun on February 14. This correspondent states in strict confidence that Madame Sun was very outspoken in her criticism of the Generalissimo and of the attitude of Kuomintang officials toward the statement she had made in regard to the blockade of the Communist areas. Apparently her remarks followed fairly closely those made to Mr. Service during her conversation with him on the same day and may be taken as evidence of her deep resentment and probable desire that knowledge of these developments reach foreign ears.
In connection with the publication of her statement about the blockade of the Communist-controlled areas, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed an officer of the Embassy that reference to this statement was made in the February 14 issue of Time and that the Chinese Government was naturally very much displeased. This official said in passing that it would be interesting to know “how Madame Sun managed to send such a statement to the United States”.
This incident is likely to make Madame Sun more of a prisoner than ever, as even in the summer of 1943 she was not permitted to proceed to Lanchow as she desired. She disclosed this during a conversation with the (then) Chargé d’Affaires a. i. last summer, explaining that she merely wished to avoid the excessive summer heat at Chungking but could not obtain permission to go to Lanchow. The present incident is the first indication the Embassy has had that Madame Sun would be willing to leave China during the war as she has informed questioners that she felt that her place was in China during the war and that she hoped to go to the United States after the end of hostilities. It is possible that she came to feel that she might accomplish more in connection with relief organizations and contacts in the United States at the present time than by remaining in China, and it is unfortunate that she has been quoted in the foreign press as making remarks which have reacted so unfavorably on her position.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩