893.00/5–2748
The Consul General at Mukden (Ward) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 4.]
The Consul General has the honor to report that newspapers and individuals representative of Chinese opinion in Mukden have shown careful attention to the determined efforts by Northeast delegates to the National Assembly, formed into a “Petition Group,” to obtain at Nanking reforms in administration of the Northeast. Progressive dissipation of local military, political and economic resources has raised the level of their criticism from private muttering to anger publicly expressed. Now, two months after presentation of the petition, it is evident that the Group has not been granted its major demands. The Government has indeed accorded Northeasterners higher personal rank than heretofore (still not exceeding secondary levels in the Northeast), and it is at last moving toward organization of militia: but neither a determined military program nor fiscal equality with Intramural China is in prospect for the Northeast, while food relief and diminution of absentee governments have not exceeded the value of a token. Despite its nominal failure, however, the Petition Group retains a final significance—within it have coalesced resourceful Northeasterners who for the first time have dared publicly to expose exploitation of the Northeast in bitter terms, to dramatize the split between Intramural and local attitudes and to call upon the Northeast people for unity in pressing for redress.
Backed by the Liaoning Provincial and the Mukden Municipal [Page 263] Peoples’ Councils, the Group has sought the following concessions, probably in their descending order of importance:*
- 1.
- Military reinforcements for the Northeast, as well as formation and arming of local self-defense units, commanded by local leaders.
- 2.
- Revision of fiscal policy in the direction of union between National (CNC) and Northeastern currency; at least that the existing balance be maintained: Northeast currency be admitted to Intramural circulation if CNC is introduced to circulation in the Northeast, remittance traffic across the Wall remain unrestricted, and the rate of exchange remain at the level prevailing during the past two years (CNC 11.5 equals about NE 1).
- 3.
- Agricultural loans and food relief.
- 4.
- Reduction in size of National “absentee” governments of provinces and municipalities held by the Communists.
- 5.
- Educational facilities in Peiping for refugee students from the Northeast.
The petitioners are genuinely identified with the Northeast by birth and/or prewar residence. They are, however, without exception men of personal wealth, with irrevocable stakes in the maintenance of National (or some other Eight-Wing) power in the Northeast. Their local supporters, dominant in the Mukden City and Liaoning Provincial Peoples’ Council,† have a comparable economic status. Only within this limited sense does the Petition Group represent the people of the Northeast—and the petition itself obviously is colored deeply by solicitude for the petitioners’ personal holdings. Indeed, one local newspaper published the report that votes in the election of the Municipal Council were purchased for the equivalent of U. S. $1 each. Yet the Petition Group derives general popular support because it is the first really outspoken, formal outcry against “Southern Reconstruction,” which clearly has helped the civil war and the Soviets to ruin the economy of the Northeast at substantial personal profit for the officials concerned.
[Here follows detailed account of petition situation.]