Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Memorandum by Colonel James C. Davis27 to General Marshall
Washington, April 4, 1946.
- 1.
- Attached is the full text of General Chou En-lai’s statement issued at a press conference held 18 March 1946,28 which the General requested be forwarded to you by General Gillem. The statement is a specification of the departures from the PCC agreement which he attributes to the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee meeting. General Chou expresses his complete and continuing adherence to the agreements reached by the PCC, including the proposed constitution, and asserts his complete confidence in you and desire to cooperate with your program.
- 2.
- The specifications of bad faith leveled by General Chou at the
Kuomintang may be summarized as follows:
- (a)
- the formation of riots, including the disturbance at the Peiping Executive Headquarters;
- (b)
- failure to implement agreements for freedom of the press and suppression of Communist newspapers;
- (c)
- failure to release political prisoners;
- (d)
- demands by the CEC that State Counselor nominees of the various parties should be selected by the Central Standing Committee of the Kuomintang rather than by the parties themselves;
- (e)
- efforts on the part of the CEC to have submitted to the constitutional convention not only the PCC draft of the constitution but also the old May 5th draft constitution and amendments suggested at the CEC, strengthening the Central Government and weakening the local governments of the Provinces;
- (f)
- a report by General Lin Wei, Vice-Minister of War, that the nationalistic ninety divisions will include approximately 3,500,000 men instead of approximately 1,800,000 as was represented to the PCC.
- 3.
- The general tone of General Chou’s statement is summarized in the following excerpt therefrom: “As I have said, there is nothing [Page 163] amazing that the irreconcilable elements within the Kuomintang should deliberately undermine the PCC decisions, but what puzzles us is that the Generalissimo, who has personally presided over the PCC, should have allowed the claims of these irreconcilables to be passed by the Plenary Session.”
James C. Davis
Colonel, General Staff Corps