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Memorandum of Conversation, by the Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Davies)
The Soviet Assistant Military Attaché, Major Andrejev, stated that the Generalissimo is now facing the greatest crisis of his career, both militarily and politically. He is hampered in this situation by bad advice from those around him who distort and conceal from him the true condition of affairs. Chiang is particularly badly informed about the Chinese Communists, Major Andrejev observed.
The campaign in South China, he said was a debacle. The Chinese armies were chewed up piece-meal. Chiang tried to run operations by telephone from Chungking, committing his forces bit by bit. Tang En-po, who was responsible for the disastrous Honan campaign this past spring, has been sent with two armies to defend Kweichow. Andrejev had little hope that Tang could stop the Japanese. The enemy, he believed is driving on Kunming for two reasons; (1) to knock out our Yunnan air bases, (2) to capture the terminus of the land route from India to China and thereby vitiate everything we have done in North Burma. Andrejev said that our position on the continent now depends on the outcome of the race between the Japanese from South China and the Chinese-American force in North Burma. Whichever gets to Kunming first will have won. If the [Page 702] American trained and equipped divisions in Burma reach Kunming before the Japanese, our bases can probably be defended successfully.
Major Andrejev stated that there was little General Chennault78 could do to stop the Japanese advance. Chennault’s position in China, furthermore, depends on ground troops who can defend his bases.
Little can be expected from the Chinese armies east of the Canton-Hankow railway, Andrejev declared. If we land on the South China coast we shall have to assume full responsibility for land operations. The Japanese would like nothing better, he said than to have us get sucked into a major campaign in South China where we would be sure to be let down. He said that it would seem obvious that we should advance directly northward; Bonins, Formosa, Ryukyus and possibly the Shantung promontory.
The Generalissimo will probably take steps to curtail General Ho Ying-chin’s powers, Andrejev remarked. Chiang may keep Ho as Chief of Staff but replace him as War Minister. Or vice versa. The Deputy Chief of Staff, General Pai Chung-hsi, was bitter over the loss of Kwangsi in a conversation which Andrejev had with Pai. The Deputy Chief of Staff blamed the loss on the Generalissimo.
I asked Major Andrejev which Chinese generals he considered to be the best in the Chinese Army. He named Pai Chung-hsi. He added that Yang Chieh, however, was a more intelligent man, would make the best Chinese Chief of Staff. Yang, however, had pronounced ideas of his own which made him unacceptable to the Generalissimo. But Yang could count on strong support from within the Army, for many generals had been his students when he was head of the Central Military Academy. He said that Chen Cheng was an able general. So was Chang Fa Kuei. And Wei Li-huang who had shown a receptive attitude toward the Russian military advisors during the early years of the war. He mentioned a General Sun Ping, whom I have been unable to identify as one of the ablest officers of the Chinese General Staff.
In discussing the political situation in China, Major Andrejev referred repeatedly to the desirability of a coalition government. Yet I got the impression that he had little hope that such a coalition could be realized. He of course knew that negotiations were now in progress between the Central Government and the Communists. I asked him what civil officials he thought might be included in a coalition government. He named Sun Fo, Feng Yu-hsiang, Wong Wen-hao and Chang Li-sheng. Chang he singled out especially as remarkable for the fact that he apparently lived on his legitimate earnings and did not resort to graft—a truly extraordinary specimen.
[Page 703]I asked Andrejev a question which I knew would probably embarrass him. How long did he think it would take the Soviet Far Eastern Army, in the event that the USSR joined the war against Japan, to defeat the Kwantung Army. Andrejev flushed a little and, obviously believing that I had asked when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan, replied “Not until after the defeat of Germany.” I reexplained what I meant and he replied that it would not take long to defeat the Kwantung Army, a short time. “After all”, he went on to say, “we have learned a lot about fighting during the past three years.” Andrejev then hurried to state that the Soviet Union would respect the sovereignty of China. It would withdraw after the defeat of the Japanese. He said that the Soviet Union wanted to see a united China.
- Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault, Commanding General, U. S. 14th Air Force in China.↩