893.00/6–1445
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Acting Secretary of State58
| Participants: | The President |
| Dr. T. V. Soong | |
| Acting Secretary, Mr. Grew | |
| Mr. Charles E. Bohlen |
I called on the President this morning and after a preliminary talk with the President and Chip Bohlen, Dr. Soong was shown in and the following conversation took place:
The President said that after reading the minutes of Mr. Hopkins’ conversations in Moscow he was able to tell Dr. Soong that Stalin’s assurances with respect to the sovereignty of China in Manchuria and elsewhere had been even more categoric than he had told Dr. Soong the last time he saw him. The President said that Marshal Stalin had stated that he had no territorial claims of any kind against China and that furthermore he intended to work with Chiang Kai-shek and the central government since he considered that Chiang Kai-shek was the only Chinese leader capable of bringing about the unification of China; that none of the Communist leaders were capable of unifying China; and that the Soviet Government was prepared to lend its help to bring about China’s unity. He added that Marshal Stalin had further stated he would be quite prepared to have representatives of the central government come to the areas of Manchuria or China where the Soviet armies might be operating in order to set up immediately Chinese administration of the liberated areas.
Dr. Soong expressed his gratification at this news and then said that he had a number of points he would like to clarify with the President. He said that the information the President had given him concerning the Yalta understanding had referred to the reestablishment of Russian rights in Manchuria which had been lost as a result of the Russian-Japanese war of 1904. He said these rights had been quite sweeping in their scope and had been based upon concessions made to Russia by China after the Chinese-Japanese war in 1895. Dr. Soong then pointed out that in the Soviet-Chinese Treaty [Page 902] of 192459 and the Soviet Treaty of 1925 [1924] made with Chang Tso Lin60 the Soviet Government had specifically renounced all these special concessions, leases, and privileged position including extraterritoriality by its own free will. He said it would be necessary to clarify all these points with Stalin when he went to Moscow and also the meaning of the term “preeminent interest” of the Soviet Union in the port of Dairen. He added that for China the most difficult feature of the Soviet desires was the lease on Port Arthur since after all the suffering in this war the Chinese Government and people were very much against the reestablishment of the system of special leased ports in China.
With the President’s permission Dr. Soong then asked Mr. Bohlen if he thought the Russians intended to sign a definite agreement with him when he was in Moscow with particular reference to the Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance referred to in the Yalta agreement. Mr. Bohlen said he had no information on that specific point and thought that that would naturally depend on the course of Dr. Soong’s discussions in Moscow. He added that he thought, however, that if the Soviet Union were to enter the war against Japan it would desire to do so on the basis of complete agreement with China and as an ally with China, Great Britain, and the United States.
Dr. Soong then inquired whether the President contemplated some general agreement in regard to the surrender terms for Japan among the principal allies in the Pacific war. The President said that the terms of surrender would be imposed on Japan by the Allies and that he thought some such general agreement would be both necessary and desirable but he thought it should be done when the Soviet Union entered the war. He added that his chief interest now was to see the Soviet Union participate in the Far Eastern war in sufficient time to be of help in shortening the war and thus save American and Chinese lives. Although this was his chief preoccupation at the moment he said he wished to assure Dr. Soong that he would do nothing which would harm the interests of China since China was a friend of the United States in the Far East. The President continued that just as in Europe the United States desired above all to see these postwar questions settled in such a way as to eliminate any tinderboxes both in Europe and in the Far East which might cause future trouble and wars. He said for example we had no selfish interest in Poland but a very vital interest in seeing the Polish question settled in such a manner as to insure tranquility and stability.
Dr. Soong expressed agreement with the President’s remarks and said there was no nation in the world that China regarded as more [Page 903] of a friend than the United States. He asked the President if he had any message other than those already given to him for the Generalissimo. The President replied only that he might tell the Generalissimo that he hoped some day to have a meeting with him so they might talk face to face.
[Here follows a section dealing with Belgian and French missions in the United States.]
- Notation on the original: “Copy taken by Mr. Bohlen to [the] Secretary at S[an] F[rancisco]—6/16/45”.↩
- Signed at Peking, May 31, 1924, Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, p. 495.↩
- Signed at Mukden, September 20, 1924; British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cxxii, p. 271.↩