893.00/3–1745
Report by the Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Service)65
Summary: Almost all of the important Communist-held areas in North and Central China have now been visited by American Army observers or rescued American air crews. All evidence verifies Communist claims of controlling substantially all of the countryside of “occupied” China. End of Summary.
Ever since the arrival of the U. S. Army Observer Section in Yenan and the establishment of direct contact with the Headquarters of the [Page 288] Communist armies, there has been some hesitancy to accept the Communist claims to have effective control of the countryside of those parts of North and Central China which are under nominal Japanese occupation. Until we had seen for ourselves, such hesitancy was justified: the extent of Communist claims surprised even those who had made efforts to collect all previously available information on their activities.
Due to lack of personnel, absence of facilities such as air assistance, and the slowness of overland travel by foot, the Observer Section has made relatively slow progress in inspecting the various Communist bases behind the Japanese lines. Officers of the Section have, however, covered northwest and northeast Shansi, southeast Shansi and west Hopei (including visits to the Peiping and Paoting areas).
Officers of other organizations have visisted the Hankow area and North Chekiang.
But by far the greatest aid to our verification of the extent of the Communist areas has been the large number of American airmen (now some 70) who have dropped to safety in those areas.
The attached map66 shows the approximate routes traveled by American observers on assigned missions and by these rescued airmen. (Although a number of flyers have been rescued in the East River Communist area near Canton, their routes are not shown because the area is relatively small and well-known.)
It will be noted that routes traveled include all of the major Communist bases except the Shantung Peninsula (which apparently has not been the scene of air activity). From their points of rescue some of the air crews have traveled as far as 1000 miles through Communist-held territory.
Crews have traveled under Communist protection from the seacoast near Shanhaikuan (just south of the border of Manchuria) around Peiping to Yenan. Others have landed on the coast of North Kiangsu and traversed that province and Anhwei. Another party dropped just across the river from Nanking and was brought to Shansi.
The Communists have rescued men near Shanghai, Hankow, Canton, Nanking and Taiyuan—all important Japanese-held bases in China. Flyers have dropped safely within a mile of Japanese airfields or blockhouses.
Over a hundred American crossings of Japanese-held railways have been made safely.
It is axiomatic that it is difficult to hide an Anglo-Saxon traveling through China. But except when crossing railways or in areas very close to the Japanese, practically all travel was done by day without any attempt at concealment. In fact, public celebrations, mass meetings and speeches along the way were customary. Newspapers publislied [Page 289] in the base areas noted the passage of American visitors. Some of the parties did not even take the bother of exchanging their American Army uniforms for Chinese clothing.
Passage across solidly held areas of Chinese control, in which there were no Japanese forces, sometimes took a week or more of steady travel.
The rescued aviators I have had a chance to talk to have agreed with the officers of the Observer Section in their favorable impression of the Communist forces with which they had contact. The so far unequaled opportunities for extensive observation enjoyed by these men makes the collection and compilation of their reports a most important source of information concerning the Chinese Communists.
The following conclusions are now justified:
- (1)
- We must accept as substantially correct the Communist claims to control the countryside of North and Central China behind the line of Japanese penetration.
- (2)
- Our past consideration of this territory as “Japanese occupied” should be revised. The Japanese hold only a thin skeleton: the rest of the area is controlled by forces on our side.67
- Received in the Department about April 27.↩
- Not found in Department files.↩
-
In a memorandum of May 9 the Assistant Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs (Chase) observed:
“Service reports pretty convincing evidence that the Communists’ claims as to the extent of Communist-controlled territory (substantially all of the countryside of occupied China’) are not appreciably exaggerated.
“It is believed that his report warrants an upward revision in our estimate of the extent and population of Communist China.”
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