893.00/11–2047
The Minister-Counselor of Embassy in China (Clark) to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)55
Dear Walt: I hope we have not been playing too many variations of the tune that Chinese officialdom is now chastened and appearing willing to clean house. If it were not for the fact that I find others of long residence here agreeing that an opportunity is now offered which should not be missed I would be inclined to think I was nearly Pollyanna and reading into things more than there is there.
Most fortuitously I ran into Arthur Young56 the day I landed in Shanghai and found him ripe with suggestions for improving the internal situation in China. He had come back temporarily on the understanding that he would not be expected to stay unless China was prepared to take effective action and felt himself in a strong position to make unprejudiced suggestions to the Chinese authorities. He works, of course, through Chang Chia-ngau. As you know by now he finally prepared a memorandum of his thoughts which he handed to the Ambassador in Shanghai and which we transmitted with the first telegram57 upon my arrival in Nanking. I say that [Page 370] the crystallization of Arthur Young’s ideas came fortuitously because I found in Nanking such a growing realization of the acuteness of the crisis that on all sides I have been getting indications that the Gimo may, repeat may, at last be willing to take the requisite action. The Ambassador is convinced of this as he is convinced that the Gimo still has the authority to act if he takes the decision. The Gimo and other high ranking officials seem very reluctantly to have come to the conclusion that they must accept active American guidance and they are doing their best to bring themselves to take the requisite action. I hope by the time you have received this we will have been informed in more detail of the current thought in the Department on this problem. From here the time seems very opportune for a “Marshall” approach to the Far East analogous to that made to Europe. Wellington Koo is being instructed today to approach the Department58 with a definite request for financial aid coupled with an undertaking to accept American guidance in the various fields where reform is necessary to bring some order out of the existing internal chaos. This decision was taken with the full approval of the Gimo and Arthur Young insists that he impressed upon Chang Chia-ngau the importance of not taking this action unless the Chinese Government intended to carry through with its implementation. It is, I am convinced, a present intention of the high officials to “sail the course now charted” but the Chinese are still Chinese and there is going to be many a pitfall. Our thought at the moment is that if the Department accedes to the Chinese request the American advisers sent should be paid by the United States Government and loaned to China, their expenses in China including housing, transportation, etc., being paid by the Chinese Government. The advisers would thus retain more freedom of action, greater prestige, and give us more control over their activities.
If there are favorable developments to this démarche by the Chinese Government one element would of necessity appear to be a real activation of AAG along lines to meet the practical situation existing in China today and in this event I am wondering whether we should not have a stronger man heading that group. A name that occurs to me is that of an old friend of mine whom I believe you also know, who is now General Timberman.59
I am off to Peiping November 25th and will visit Mukden and Tientsin, at the same time calling Siebens60 down from Changchun. Immediately upon my return I plan to go to Tsingtao and if possible [Page 371] before Christmas will make the circuit: Taipei, Hong Kong, Canton, Hankow. I have been advised to delay my trip west until the arrival of the converted flying fortress which has been promised the Air Attaché. When I have completed my tour I shall be in a better position to speak regarding China. At the moment I don’t dare open my mouth without the advice of counsel.
I find even greater need for a plane for the Ambassador than I had envisaged from Washington and we will be sending a telegram on the subject immediately upon my return from my northern trip.
With the very best regards [etc.]
- Date of receipt not indicated.↩
- American adviser to the Chinese Ministry of Finance.↩
- See telegram No. 2223, November 10, 4 p.m., from the Ambassador in China, p. 1205.↩
- See memorandum of November 24 from the Chinese Embassy, p. 1223.↩
- Brig. Gen. Thomas S. Timberman, formerly American Director of Operations of Executive Headquarters at Peiping.↩
- Allen C. Siebens, Vice Consul at Changchun.↩