811.22/392
The Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Penfield) to the Secretary of State 38
[Received May 30.]
Subject: Conduct of American Troops in Chengtu.
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Embassy’s despatch to the Department No. 2443, April 17, 1944,39 in regard to the above subject, and to report hereunder information and opinions based on conversations on this subject held during the past three weeks with perhaps 100 persons of various nationalities and widely differing classes.
[Page 68]There seems to be no doubt that up until approximately one month ago the situation in regard to the presence of American troops in and near Chengtu was unsatisfactory. There was no unified command in the area, no unit commander or other officer accepted effective responsibility for discipline in the city, and there were no military police or other means available for enforcing discipline even if the responsibility had been squarely assumed. Even while these unsatisfactory conditions existed, however, unfortunate incidents were relatively few and the principal factors tending to increase the seriousness of the situation in local eyes appear to have been apprehension and exaggeration. Whenever an incident occurred involving misbehaviour of some sort on the part of Army personnel, it would first be multiplied in the public mind by the tremendous number of American troops rumored to be arriving in the near future as compared with the very few here at the time, and then it would be exaggerated in the light of the many widely current unsavory stories of behaviour of American troops in Kunming and Kweilin. Thus, a potentially very unfortunate state of affairs was fast building up, but because it was composed of more smoke than fire it was relatively easy to control when the appropriate remedial steps were taken.
In the first part of April administrative control in the entire Chengtu area was unified and, as reported in the Embassy’s despatch under reference, military police arrived and started regular patrolling in the city. Since then an intelligently conscientious approach on the part of the Sector Commander, Colonel W. Urbach, a generally very cooperative attitude on the part of the local officials, the strenuous efforts of a few public spirited and sympathetic Chinese and foreigners, and the relatively high quality of the troops in the area, have contributed to an improvement in the situation to a point where one rarely hears disparaging remarks regarding the conduct of the soldiers and occasionally hears spontaneously expressed complimentary remarks about them.
The importance of the type of personnel in the area was recently illustrated by the presence here for a few days of a group of 14th Air Force personnel whose unkempt and disreputable appearance and somewhat boorish ways strikingly distinguished them from the bulk of the troops regularly stationed here.
There are still only a relatively few American troops in this area and as the number is increased, as it will be in the near future, incidents and problems will inevitably arise. However, it is the unanimous opinion of those who have had any recent experience in Kunming and Kweilin that the situation here is very much better than it is or has been in those cities. There is therefore every reason to hope that, given the favorable conditions now existing, relations between [Page 69] the local population and American personnel will continue to develop along mutually satisfactory lines.
Respectfully yours,