121.893/9–1247: Airgram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 23—8:52 a.m.]
A–181. The following is an extract from a memorandum prepared by the Ambassador on the basis of a verbal report to him by his Chinese assistant, Mr. Philip Fugh:
“On the afternoon of September [1?] I arranged for Philip Fugh to call on Chang Ch’un primarily in order to talk with him informally about the American insistence on title deeds to the various properties transferred to us under the Surplus Property Agreement of August 30, 1946.26
“He found the Premier in a mood of irritation toward America in general and General W. in particular. Gen. Wedemeyer had planned to invite the Generalissimo and Madame Chiang and the Premier and Madam Chang to dinner at my home the evening before his own departure from China. They had all accepted but on the afternoon of that day the Generalissimo sent word that he had been taken ill and would be unable to attend but that his wife would be glad to do so. After some thought and consultation with others Gen. W. finally cancelled the invitations. The Premier began by expressing his dissatisfaction with this treatment. Was he not the Premier? Was it not an affront to Madame Chiang not to act on her own suggestion that the rest of them could attend? He evidently felt much aggrieved and this incident was rankling. He went on to say the [that] Gen. W. had not thought it worth while to talk with him at any length about the purpose of his coming to China although he had opened the way; that Gen. W. had assured him that no public statement of his impressions would be issued and yet he freely criticized the Government while giving no indication of any help to China from this self-appointed Mission. The United States Government had induced China to use American arms but was now unwilling to supply ammunition which was in effect deserting the Government and aiding its enemies. We seemed to think of China in somewhat the old colonial or subject-people terms.”
- For correspondence concerning the agreement, see Foreign Relations, 1946, vol. x, pp. 1033 ff.↩