893.00/8–2547: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 24—4:15 a.m.]
1791. Government steps to control students and retaliate for disorders last spring have increased in August, with expulsions ordered and agitators labelled as Communists or Democratic League members. Shanghai press August 21 reports 437 students have been dismissed from 8 Shanghai universities and colleges. Reliable local university source states that Government and private universities in Nanking early in August received orders from Executive Yuan through Ministry of Education that under Articles 7 and 15 of mobilization order all civil institutions are to help maintain order, that student strikes last spring amounted to disorder, and that universities were to take advantage of summer vacation and fall enrollment to improve situation. This source states that Nanking University on August 19 received order from Nanking gendarmerie garrison headquarters [Page 262] transmitted by Ministry of Education to expel for “active strike activity” 7 students described as “Communists or Democratic League party members” and to expel for “less active strike activity” 30 additional students also described as “Communists or Democratic League party members”. Of these students only 1 is known by university to be a Communist or Democratic League member. However, all were known to be active in the strikes.
Vice Minister of Education Han Li-wu stated on August 22 that lists of students and expulsion orders prepared by garrison headquarters are going to most universities and colleges, that few orders are transmitted through Ministry of Education, that students ordered expelled from universities range from very few to more than a hundred per university, and that expulsions are for political activity or poor scholarship. He indicated that although his “personal policy” was to divorce universities from politics, garrison commanders under mobilization decrees could arrest students and faculty for political activity and that Ministry was powerless in situation. However, he stated that he advised president Nanking University to collect evidence that students listed had “repented their activities” and that University ignore expulsion order.