Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Minutes of Meeting Between General Marshall and Dr. Stuart at No. 5 Ning Hai Road, Nanking, October 16, 1946, 11 a.m.
Dr. Stuart opened the meeting by outlining the current developments in the status of negotiations. Dr. Stuart reported that Mr. Mo Tai Wei68 and Li Chen69 had had an all day conference in Shanghai yesterday with minor parties and as a result of that meeting three delegates went to see General Chou to urge him to return to Nanking. Strikingly significant is the fact that during the discussion with General Chou, General Chou made no comment whatsoever. Mr. Mo Tai Wei and Li Huang70 returned to Nanking and sent a delegate to report to Dr. Stuart, Mr. Mo Tai Wei is of the opinion that in order to develop specific results the Government should send a higher ranking individual to Shanghai to further encourage General Chou to return to Nanking. General Marshall said this would probably be very helpful but that the Generalissimo might soon put out a statement which would change this procedure slightly.
General Marshall said that Madame Chiang Kai-shek had called on him the previous evening and brought with her a rewritten version71 of the statement which he and Dr. Stuart had sent to the Generalissimo yesterday.72 General Marshall remarked that the rewritten statement was jumbled in thought and provocative in nature, and that he (General Marshall) struck out considerable portions of the Generalissimo’s version.
General Marshall continued by stating that there were three important matters in connection with the statement, as it presently stands, and these are: 1) There must be a definite understanding between the two parties as to what the statement actually means. In effect the Generalissimo’s statement, if agreed to by General Chou, would permit the immediate cessation of hostilities as well as constitute a [Page 376] complete procedure for arriving, step by step, at a peaceful solution. Neither side, after agreeing, could then delay while awaiting developments of either the Three Man Committee or the Five Man Committee. 2) How to put the procedure into effect after it is agreed to. General Marshall stated that if the Communists, through Chou expressed written agreement to the procedure and understandings it would be necessary first to convene the Committee of Three to prepare the order for the termination of hostilities. In this connection he stated that this would be a very delicate job since the Communists would desire to go all the way back to the 10 January agreement for defining troop dispositions, whereas the National Government will insist on holding all territories which they presently occupy. General Marshall stated that he would try to settle this issue by establishing a temporary status quo; providing for the settlement of difficulties between troops in close contact; and leaving until later the question of redisposing troops in accordance with a revised 25 February agreement.73 3) The Generalissimo excluded Manchuria in connection with resolving the local administration problem. General Marshall stated that the Communists would take exception to this exclusion which will make it very difficult for Dr. Stuart and his Five Man Committee to resolve this question.
General Marshall continued by stating that as a result of the vicious personal attacks of the Communists on him, it would be necessary for Dr. Stuart to handle the negotiations until such time as the Committee of Three should actually meet. At this time General Marshall will step back into the picture as chairman of that Committee. Dr. Stuart and General Marshall agreed that they should exert every pressure on the Generalissimo to issue without delay the public statement just prepared.
Dr. Stuart outlined in general his trip to Hangchow on Friday and stated that he would plan to go on this trip unless some development took place in the meantime which demanded his presence in Nanking.
- Probably Mo Teh-hui, member of the Presidium of the Chinese People’s Political Council.↩
- Lei Chen, Secretary General of the Political Consultative Conference.↩
- Member of the People’s Political Council.↩
- Supra. ↩
- See draft of October 14, p. 367.↩
- On military reorganization and integration, vol. ix, p. 295.↩