Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Mr. Carsun Chang to General Marshall
My Dear General Marshall: Mr. Yeh Tu Yi has brought back the essential points of his conversation with you on the 17th, for which I wish to express my thanks. Hereunder I try to give you a rough summary of the development of situation and a brief review of the activities in Shanghai so far made.
- 1,
- First meeting was held in my residence on the 8th including Dr. Sun Fo,99 General Chou En Lai, and the third parties. We decided therein to despatch a third parties’ delegation to go to Nanking. Then in cooperation with the Kuomintang delegates, an invitation would be sent to General Chou asking him to go to Nanking.
- 2,
- Through Dr. Sun Fo, Generalissimo on the 10th welcomed us to proceed to Nanking.
- 3,
- Capture of Kalgan and convocation order of National Assembly came in the night of the 11th, thus cancelling our trip to Nanking.
- 4,
- Mr. Lei Chen, representing the government, came to Shanghai on the 14th, and we third parties expressed two main ideas for him to bring back: 1, Fighting should be stopped first before engaging in political negotiations. 2, Government should despatch one or two delegates to come here again.
- 5,
- Messrs. Wu Tieh Cheng, Shao Li Tze, and Lei Chen came on the 17th, bringing here the Generalissimo’s 8 points.
- 6,
- Yenan statement was issued on the 18th.1 It sounds very stiff, nevertheless it still does not shut the door of negotiations.
Thus the picture up to date. And I wish to express our ideas as follows:
- 1,
- We maintain our original standpoint of first stopping the fight.
- 2,
- A line of demarcation for the two opposing forces should be drawn, each side maintaining its existing region.
- 3,
- Then Executive Committee should be despatched to execute the details of cease fire order. For this there has been two agreements, the Jan. 10th, and the June 24th. The communists want to base upon the former agreement, arguing that the latter one has not been signed.
Whether we come to Nanking with or without an understanding concerning cessation of hostilities is still uncertain. Anyhow we are persuading General Chou En Lai to go back to Nanking. We know that you have done a great deal about the 8 points statement, and we appreciate it. Still we hope that these points shall not be considered as binding, though its spirit will naturally be adopted in the course of negotiations.
This letter is brought back by Mr. Yeh Tu Yi. He will get [in] touch with you before I come.
Yours faithfully,