893.00/15207
Memorandum by the Secretary of War (Stimson) to the Secretary of State 94
Your letter of February 28 with regard to a proposed Observers’ Mission to Communist-Controlled areas in China has been received. The status of this matter is as follows:
In a message to the Generalissimo on February 9, the White House requested the Generalissimo’s support and cooperation for the dispatch of an American Observers’ Mission to North Shensi and Shansi Provinces and such other parts of North China as may be necessary in order to increase the flow of information as to the enemy in North China and Manchuria.
The Generalissimo replied on February 22 that he would do all he could to facilitate the plan to send an American Observers’ Mission to gain more accurate information as to Japanese troops concentrated in North China and Manchuria; that he had issued instructions to the [Page 374] Ministry of War to get in touch with General Stilwell’s headquarters with a view to mapping out a prospective itinerary for the mission in all areas where the political authority of the national government extends and wherever the Chinese Army is located.
In the meantime, General Hearn (Chief of Staff to General Stilwell in Chungking) informed the War Department that the Generalissimo had explained to him at great length that the area authorized by the Generalissimo to be visited by the Observers excluded the Chinese Communist Area.
On March 1, the White House informed the Generalissimo that we shall plan to dispatch the Observers’ Mission shortly, stating that North and Northeast China is considered a most fruitful source of valuable military intelligence of the enemy.
The War Department is informing General Stilwell that the State Department concurs in Embassy’s radio No. 353 of February 19 in which Ambassador Gauss states that the mission should be essentially military and suggests inclusion of Mr. John Service. General Stilwell is therefore being requested to discuss the entire matter with Ambassador Gauss and to submit recommendations as to the composition of the mission.
- The substance of this memorandum was repeated to the Ambassador in China in Department’s telegram No. 333, March 13, 3 p.m.↩