Office of the Historian

Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270

Memorandum by Mr. Tung Pi-wu to General Marshall

Nanking, October 6, 1946.

Dear General Marshall: In response to your request for putting into writing the issues about the National Assembly, the following points are formulated:

(1)
The distribution among the various parties and nonpartisans of the increased National Assembly seats agreed upon in the PCC has already been completed. However, as to how the non-partisan representatives whose number has been fixed would be produced, the various parties still hold divergent views, and no decision has yet been made thereon.
(2)
The geographical and vocational representatives for Hopei, Shantung, Chahar, Jehol, Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Border Region, nine Manchurian provinces, and the three cities of Peiping, Tientsin and Tsingtao, have not yet been elected. Among these representatives, the total number of Communists was decided upon in the course of a negotiation between Government delegates Messrs. Chang Chun, Wang Shih-chieh and Shao Li-tze and Communist delegates General Chou En-lai, Messrs. Tung Pi-wu and Wang Jo-fei. But no detail [Page 298] provisions were crystallized. The negotiation was subsequently broken down owing to the infringements upon the PCC resolutions.
(3)
After the PCC meetings, the Government proposed a further increase of the National Assembly seats. Regarding their allocation, no minute discussion has been conducted.

The foregoing is [are] the actual issues concerning the National Assembly representatives.

The Government unilaterally decided to convoke the National Assembly on Nov. 12, 1946. However, the Communist Party has already publicly announced that it is in no way committed to this one-sided resolution which was not taken through consultation in the PCC.

The sole function of the National Assembly is to institute the constitution. In virtue of one of the PCC resolutions, the National Assembly should discuss and adopt the constitution on the basis of the Draft Constitution revised by the PCC. Therefore, inasmuch as the task of Draft Constitution reviewing undertaken by PCC still remains unfinished, any unscrupulous convening of the National Assembly would inevitably entail unforeseen troubles. Your attention is hereby drawn to the afore-mentioned.

Faithfully yours,

Tung Pi-wu