Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Notes on Meeting Between General Marshall and General C. P. Lee at General Marshall’s Residence, Nanking, October 30, 1946, 10:30 a.m.
| Also present: | Captain Soong |
General Li stated that he had seen Mr. Tung Pi Wu yesterday. During the course of the conversation Mr. Tung stated that the Communist Party had made large concessions during the current negotiations and that it had tried its best to adapt itself to the situation. General Li related three important points, upon which the Communists insisted, made by Mister Tung:
- (1)
- The reorganization of the State Council and the Executive Yuan must be carried out simultaneously;
- (2)
- It must be made clear in the Draft Constitution that the president of the Executive Yuan (who is nominated by the President with the concurrence of the Legislative Yuan, and the Executive Yuan) must be responsible to the Legislative Yuan;
- (3)
- The list of names of the Communist delegates to the National Assembly must be handed to the Government only after the State Council and the Executive Yuan are reorganized.
Mr. Tung also emphasized the importance of carrying out the PCC resolutions. General Li then explained that there are over fifteen Ministries within the Executive Yuan and it is his impression that the Communist Party would want the Ministers of seven or eight of the Ministries to be Communist Members or Third Party Members.
General Marshall said that the resolutions of the PCC were made possible by the accepted plan for neutralization of the army. That factor was again closely involved in the present situation. In other words, an exact compliance with the detailed procedure stipulated [Page 451] in the PCC agreements was limited by the unbalanced military situation. General Marshall then went on to discuss the possibilities of a compromise in the problem of reorganizing the Executive Yuan by awarding certain cabinet positions to the Communist and Third Party members. In this connection General Li suggested a list of names of Third Party members who he thought would be qualified for such positions. General Li also suggested that if the Government could announce a change of the cabinet members by appointing the Communist Party and Third Party members to such positions, the Communist Party might be persuaded to hand into the Government the names of its delegates to the National Assembly. General Marshall thought that this might be a good suggestion.
General Li then told General Marshall that he had had a talk with Mr. Mo Teh-hui yesterday. It seemed to Mr. Mo that the present situation depends entirely on the willingness of the Generalissimo to have the issues solved. Mr. Mo felt that, the Generalissimo means to replace some of the people immediately surrounding him with some liberal-minded people who can exert a certain amount of influence on the Generalissimo.
General Marshall’s comment was that this procedure would not be practical because the party’s political power for action would remain in the hands of those who now dominated the party.
General Li then said that many of the students of political science seemed to think that General Marshall is the only one today who can exert pressure on the Generalissimo and that much of the future of China depends on General Marshall’s effort.
General Marshall replied that he exerted his full power to influence the Government but when successful it was only to find the Communists unwilling to accept the proposals because of suspicion. Therefore, without the cooperation of the Communists General Marshall could not do very much.
General Li then suggested that General Marshall should see Mr. Mo Teh-hui and Mr. Hu Lin to listen to what they had to express.
General Marshall agreed.