893.00/15401: Airgram
The Ambassador in China (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 1—6 p.m.]
A–57. As indicative of severity of Government control over the press in China, substance of portions from OWI survey May 5 of Chinese press at Chengtu is cited as follows:
The Hsin Hsin Hsin Wen in February published certain regulations of the National Military Affairs Commission having to do with treatment of foreigners, among which was an item suggesting foreign visitors be prevented from having contacts with foreign residents (Embassy’s despatch No. 2490 of April 2560). This was a confidential document and its publication so irritated General Chang Chun, Chairman of the Szechuan Provincial Government, that he held a court martial for all those persons considered responsible for the publication of the regulations. As a result, the Chief of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department of the Generalissimo’s Headquarters was discharged and ordered to stand by for further investigation, the censor on duty was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment, the clerk in the local Garrison Headquarters (who permitted the newspaper reporter to see the document) was given 3 years’ imprisonment, the reporter and editor on duty were ordered to be dismissed by the newspaper and their employment by any other newspaper in China was forbidden.
On April 16, the Hwa Hsi Jih Pao published an item that had already appeared in a Chengtu newspaper the previous evening, a Reuter’s broadcast stating that in the opinion of the New York press one of the aims of Vice President Wallace’s visit to China was to bring about unity among China’s political factions. Assuming that news items already published at Chengtu were exempt from further censorship, the newspaper did not submit the news to the local Central Government-appointed censor. The local censor immediately requested the Chief Censor at Chungking to punish the newspaper because of its publication of the item and as the result the paper was given a stern Warning by the Chief Censor that any repetition of failure to submit news to the local censor would cause permanent suspension of the paper.
The Hwa Hsi Wan Pao printed the original article about the alleged purposes of Vice President Wallace’s visit to China but could not be penalized because the item had been submitted to and passed by the censor prior to publication. The Central Government authorities were, however, very resentful and it is believed that this resentment [Page 77] was the cause of their arrest, for purposes of intimidation, of one member of the newspaper’s editorial staff on the charge that he had joined a reading society some 2 years previously in another district of the province which was subsequently found to be subversive.
- Not printed.↩