Office of the Historian

Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270

Public Statement by General Marshall and Ambassador Stuart

[Nanking,] 8 October 1946.

On the morning of October 1st General Marshall received through the hands of Mr. Wang Ping-nan, the Communist representative, a memorandum dated September 30th from General Chou En-lai in Shanghai relating the activities of the Kuomintang Party to which objection was taken and concluding with the following paragraph:

“Now I am duly instructed to serve the following notice, which I request you would kindly transmit to the Government: If the Kuomintang Government does not instantly cease its military operations against Kalgan and the vicinity areas, the Chinese Communist Party feels itself forced to presume that the Government is thereby giving public announcement of a total national split, and that it has ultimately abandoned its pronounced policy of peaceful settlement. When reaching such a stage, the responsibility of all the serious consequences should as a matter of course solely rest with the Government side.”

In accordance with the request of General Chou the foregoing memorandum was transmitted to the Generalissimo, and on October 2nd he replied in a memorandum to General Marshall relating certain hostile acts of troops of the Communist Party. In this memorandum the Generalissimo proposed, with a view to saving time and as indicating the sincerity of the Government, the following as the maximum concessions the Government would make in the solution of the present problem:

  • “1) The Chinese Communist Party has been incessantly urging the reorganization of the National Government. This hinges on the distribution of the membership of the State Council. The Government originally agreed that the Chinese Communist Party be allocated eight seats and the Democratic League, four, with a total of twelve. The Chinese Communist Party, on the other hand, requested ten for themselves and four for the Democratic League with a total of fourteen. Now the Government makes a fresh concession by taking the mean and offering one seat for the independents to be recommended by the Chinese Communist Party and agreed upon by the Government, so that, added to the original twelve, it makes a total of thirteen seats. [Page 313] But the Communist Party should without delay produce the list of their candidates for the State Council as well as the list of their delegates to the National Assembly. This reassignment of seats should be decided by the proposed group of five to be confirmed by the Steering Committee of PCC.
  • “2) For immediate implementation of the program for reorganization of the army, the location of the eighteen Communist divisions should be immediately determined and the Communist troops should enter those assigned places according to agreed dates. The above should be decided by the Committee of Three and carried out under the supervision of the Executive Headquarters.”

This communication was immediately transmitted to the Communist representatives and they, later on in the week, called on the American mediators with a request for information as to whether the memorandum of the Generalissimo of October 2nd was a reply to General Chou’s memorandum of September 30th, as no mention of Kalgan was made.

There followed a series of discussions between the Generalissimo and General Marshall and Ambassador Stuart which finally resulted in the acquiescence of the Generalissimo that he halt the advance on Kalgan for a period of 10 days during which the Five Man Group and the Committee of Three would meet in order to consider the two proposals of the Generalissimo in his communication of October 2nd. The Generalissimo further agreed that during the period of this truce Executive Headquarters would check on its observance with teams at all critical points and that Government representatives would not accompany teams within the Communist lines while the Communist representatives would not accompany teams within the Government lines. Also that between the two forces, teams will be located with representatives from both sides. Further that the American member would have the authority to determine where and when the teams would go and would himself report on any actions which would, in effect, be considered violations of the truce.

The Generalissimo further agreed to the arrangement that the public announcement of the truce would be made by the American mediators and that the Government and the Communists were to refrain from any announcement.

This information was transmitted immediately at 1:30 on October 6th to the Communist representative, Mr. Wang Ping-nan for transmittal by him to General Chou En-lai in Shanghai.

Today, Tuesday October 8th, Mr. Wang Ping-nan delivered verbally the reply from Yenan through General Chou En-lai, the substance of which was as follows:

[Here follows text of reply as printed on page 310.]