761.93/1769
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. O. Edmund Clubb of the Division of Chinese Affairs
In course of conversation in CA on April 15 Mr. Liang29 asked what I thought was the significance of the Soviet Russians coming out so strongly in respect to the question of the Sinkiang-Outer Mongolian border incident. I said that I assumed they possibly wished first to get their report of the matter before the public. Mr. Liang asked whether I considered that the border incident would be followed by important developments, and I replied that I thought it was merely “a border incident”.
Mr. Liang said that he thought possibly General Sheng Shih-ts’ai had been at fault in taking an attitude which was “too strongly” anti-Soviet since his reorientation, and it appeared possibly to be his implication that the situation would have to be corrected. This observation of Mr. Liang, who has only recently arrived in the United States from Chungking, is of particular interest in view of Dr. Quo T’ai-chi’s statement that Chungking troops are in his opinion currently being sent to Sinkiang by the Central Government for the purpose of increasing that Government’s control there and that Sheng Shih-ts’ai in consequence will be eliminated.
- Hubert S. Liang, formerly director of department of promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, on lecture tour.↩