893.00 Manchuria/5–2347
The Consul General at Mukden ( Ward ) to the Ambassador in China ( Stuart )19
Sir: I have the honor to report on matters centering on the return to Manchuria of General Ma Chan-shan, veteran cavalry leader and [Page 142] prominent figure in the former, native and semi-autonomous Manchurian regimes of Chang Tso-lin and Chang Hsueh-liang.20
Summary: After protracted negotiations, General Ma Chan-shan has finally returned to Manchuria at the insistence of the Central Government and assumed the position of Deputy Commander of the Northeast China Command (NECC). The growing offensive power of the Communist armies and their constantly mounting numerical superiority resulting from their greater utilization of native recruits and from aid given them by underground native forces has made the Nationalist leaders see the urgent need of attracting popular support to the Government. In bringing Ma to the Northeast in an apparently important military capacity, the Government was motivated by a desire to utilize Ma’s potential strength inherent in his wide popularity here and in the presence of many thousands of his former followers scattered throughout Manchuria, including large numbers in Communist areas. At the same time the Nationalist leaders fear Ma (whose background is more anti-Kuomintang and pro-autonomy than anti-Communist) and seek to keep his activities circumscribed and under close surveillance.
While Ma and other sources deny the possibility of the Government’s allowing Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang to return to Manchuria, there are persistent rumors that he may come, and the rapid deterioration of the Government’s military position may conceivably cause the Government to bring him here as an additional step toward winning defections from the Communists of native guerrilla forces.
It is believed that the Government cannot hope appreciably to strengthen its weak position by the mere appointment of popular native sons to figurehead posts and that far more substantial concessions to native aspirations and needs would be required to gain popular support for the Government. It is thought that Ma will either find his activities so circumscribed by the Government as to render him useless, or—if managing to gain a free hand—will prove an important factor in helping the Communists, possibly directly and deliberately, but more likely indirectly, by stimulating a native movement which would be utilized by the Communists and made subject to strong Communist and Eussian influence. The same would apply with respect to Chang Hsueh-liang if he should return here. End of Summary.
[Here follows detailed account.]