Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Memorandum by General Marshall to General Yu Ta-wei
Dear General Yu: Late this afternoon General Chou En-lai appealed to me to halt a Government offensive operation which he claimed was directed against the encircled Communist army in Hopei, northeast of Hankow. Before I could bring this to the attention of the Government this evening I received a message from the American Commissioner in Peiping98 which appears to confirm the report that a Government offensive actually had been launched by Pacification Headquarters at Chengchow, “to the east of railway”.
Please, as a matter of urgency, take the steps necessary to see that such a disruption does not make utterly impossible the successful conclusion of negotiations with which I am now laboring to permit the termination of hostilities.
- Telegram No. 4694, June 28, not printed.↩