893.00/3–1447: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 14—9:01 a.m.]
559. Having been prepared by weeks of reiteration of the Chinese position, the reaction to the Molotov proposal for the inclusion of China on the agenda of the Moscow Conference was instantaneous. Within a few hours after the news had been received in China, the Foreign Minister issued a strongly worded statement which was reinforced the following day by the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs. (ReEmbtels 526, March 1212 and 543, March 13). Both have received wide dissemination as has declaration by Dr. Sun Fo13 terming proposal an “insult” to China.
Among the newspapers which have already commented are the Kmt14 Chung Yang Joh Pao, CC clique15 Sin Wan Pao and Ta Kang Pao, the influential independent Ta Kung Pao and Hsin Min Pao. All have thrown full support to the official Chinese stand that the proposal derogates Chinese sovereignty, is in violation of the UN Charter and can only be considered as unfriendly act by a power which in recent months has committed a series of unfriendly acts. All made the point that no form of foreign intervention can be tolerated since the current crisis is purely an internal affair which only China can and must settle. So far there has been no reaction from Communist, Democratic League or left-wing organs of opinion such as the Shanghai Wen Hui Pao.
Some indication of what the reaction may be in circles represented by the Democratic League was given several days ago to a reliable Embassy source of information by Lo Lung-chi, spokesman of the Democratic League. He said he had for some time now been turning over in his mind the desirability of a manifesto from the Democratic League calling for international consultation and an offer of assistance in settling civil war since American mediation had failed and there now appeared to be no prospect that the Government and the Communists could or would resume peace negotiations for at least some time to come. He indicated he was inclined to favor such a manifesto. He added that he had discussed this possibility with Tung Pi-wu, head of the Communist delegation in Nanking, but he did not give any indication of Tung’s reaction. It is possible that it was at Communist instigation that the Democratic League manifesto of March 8 contained [Page 614] the following sentence as a trial balloon, “We, the Democratic Leaguers, will welcome foreign mediation either by one nation or by a group of nations if such mediation is well intended and not designed to interfere with our domestic affairs”. A somewhat similar statement was made by General Chou En-lai16 to foreign correspondents who went to Yenan a week ago during repatriation of Communist delegations.
Department please repeat to Moscow and Tokyo.