761.93/6–2047: Airgram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 1—8:57 a.m.]
A–139. Reference Embassy’s telegram No. 1270, June 11.34 It has been noted that Chinese Government releases on the Peitashan incident make two seemingly contradictory statements. One is that Peitashan is 117 miles northeast of Kitai, which according to available maps would place it almost directly on the Sinkiang–Outer Mongolian border. Second statement is that Outer Mongolian forces have penetrated 200 miles inside Sinkiang, an obvious contradiction to the first statement.
In this connection, a usually reliable Embassy source discussing the question with Dr. George Yeh, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, was shown a map containing two different boundary lines. One line roughly is that shown on the map of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics published by the National Geographic Society in December, 1944 and near which Peitashan is located. Dr. Yeh admitted that this line is the present de facto line between the two areas. The second line is some 200 miles east of the first one and is, according to Dr. Yeh, the de facto line of some 40 years ago. In admitting further that there had never been any formal demarcation of the boundary, he added that the lines had changed because of the migration of Mongol tribes westward during the last 40 years.
- Not printed.↩