740.0011 Pacific War/7–2944
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 21.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy of an undated document17 entitled “The Achievements of the 18th Group Army and New Fourth Army in the Seventh Year of the War of Resistance” prepared by the Chinese Communists and purporting to list the number of engagements with the Japanese, the number of Japanese and puppet troops wounded and killed, the Japanese losses in arms and ammunition, and other statistics of the guerrilla warfare carried on by the Communists against the Japanese for the last year.
It is of course not possible to state whether the figures given are accurate but various sources, including a French national who was in Communist-controlled territory for some months, a Belgian Eurasian who recently travelled through that territory, and an American airman who crashed in an area controlled by Chinese guerrillas, agree that there would appear to have been no recent cessation of the anti-Japanese activities of the Chinese Communists and, as mentioned in previous reports, Domei from time to time publicizes Japanese clashes with Chinese Communist troops. Also as previously suggested, the allegations issuing from Central Government sources that the Communists have stopped fighting the Japanese, or have even come to an agreement with them, are generally regarded rather as propaganda against the Border Region Government than as an effort to state the facts.
One such allegation, attributed to General Ho Ying-chin by H. C. Liang, the Minister of Information, in an interview published on July 2, 1944 in the Chungking edition of the Shanghai Evening Post & Mercury, was to the effect that the Communist Army was ordered to attack the Japanese in Shansi in May but ignored that order. In a letter dated July 6, 1944 to the editor of that newspaper, a copy of [Page 490] which is enclosed,18 Mr. Tung Pi-wu, the resident representative of the Communist Party, asserted that Mr. Liang’s statement was entirely groundless; that no such order was received by the Communists; and asked that his denial be published. Mr. Tung stated that this letter had not been acknowledged, nor had it been published.
Respectfully yours,