893.00/6–1148
The Consul General at Peiping (Clubb) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 23.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to this Consulate General’s telegram No. 237 of June 10 [9], 1948 in regard to anti-American student demonstrations in Peiping, and to enclose18 as showing the character of the anti-America propaganda enunciated by those students copies (in English translation) of leaflets distributed at the time of their demonstration.
It is to be noted that these leaflets are distributed variously to the [Page 293] “Federation of North China Students Opposing American Support of Japan and Saving the National Crisis”, and the Students Self-governing Society of the Peking University. It will be observed that the first leaflet entitled “Protest against Active American Support to Japan’s Recovery” is very particular in its charges that the United States is restoring the military strength of Japan. This leaflet carries the names of a large number of signatories: this office has not thought it worthwhile to identify the various signatories. Another item of interest forwarded with the enclosures is the leaflet of songs to be sung by the demonstrating students. Those songs definitely “follow the line” indicated in the prose leaflets.
There is enclosed also for ready reference a copy of the aforementioned Federation’s statement of June 6, 1948 making a reply to Ambassador Stuart’s statement of June 4.19 This leaflet is signed by the Shat’an Branch of the Students Self-government of the Peking National University.
With reference particularly to the hypothesis that the present student demonstrations arise solely out of Communist machinations, it is to be noted that the propaganda voiced by the students in their present demonstrations is after all in general line with editorials which have been appearing recently in the columns of the various official press. As examples (and not exceptional ones) of these editorials the Department’s attention is invited to the following items of English translations in various Chinese Press Reviews:
“America Still Wants to Support Japan” (Hsin Min Pao, May 22), No. 619.
“The Principles Laid Down in the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations20 for the Disposition of Japan should not be Changed” (Shih Chieh Jih Pao, May 25), No. 621.
“We Protest against American Support of Japan” (Hsin Sheng Pao, May 26), No. 622.
In an editorial entitled “Taber Is A Great Fool” (Peiping Jih Pao, June 5) summary No. 630, the editorial writer stated that the action of the House of Representatives Appropriation Committee in cutting off US$63,000,000 from the China aid bill “provided a powerful argument in favor of the anti-American support-of-Japan movement” and that Chairman Taber “should be held entirely responsible for this development”.
[Page 294]The indications are, in short, that if the Chinese student movement in its present form is reflecting Communist machinations, that Communist influence has at an even earlier date been manifested also in the editorial rooms of the Chinese Nationalist press. It is nevertheless quite possible that, assuming the propaganda theme was Nationalist in its original inspiration, Communist elements have seized the opportunity to bend the “anti-American movement” to their own ends. If this be true, the Chinese academic world has shown itself malleable to the influence.
Respectfully yours,
- Enclosures not printed.↩
- Text transmitted to the Department in the Ambassador’s telegram of June 5, United States Relations With China, p. 869.↩
- For text of Cairo statement by President Roosevelt, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, and British Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill, issued December 1, 1943, see Foreign Relations, The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, p. 448, or Department of State Bulletin] December 4, 1943, p. 393. For the Potsdam proclamation of July 26, 1945, see Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, vol. ii, p. 1474, or Department of State Bulletin, July 29, 1945, p. 137.↩