893.00/9–2348
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 8.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that one of the major and increasingly serious problems now facing the Chinese Government is that of refugee students from Communist areas. These students have not only become a serious economic problem for the Government but also constitute an unruly element disturbing civil order and creating confusion. In this connection reference is made to various telegrams and despatches from the Consulate General in Peiping on the July 5 incident.33 There is enclosed a memorandum34 [Page 472] concerning a recent incident in Nanking which illustrates the kind of disorder which from time to time breaks out in this city.
The magnitude of the refugee student problem in Nationalist China is a relatively new development. During the first two years following the termination of the war against Japan, the major tendency of movement of population, particularly among student groups, was away from Nationalist China and toward Communist areas. With the exception of a small trickle, this movement has now largely stopped and in its place there is a growing flood of students out of Communist areas. The Ministry of Education estimates that at the present time there are between 20 and 30 thousand refugee students in Peiping, 20 thousand in Nanking and perhaps 10 thousand in Hankow. These figures do not include refugees who came out earlier and have since been moved elsewhere. A very high proportion of them are middle school students.
The problem which confronts the Ministry of Education is what to do with them since they arrive largely destitute and expect to be subsidized and permitted to enter one of the principal universities in Peiping or the Yangtze valley which are unable to provide them instruction. The current crop in Peiping has come almost entirely from Manchuria. The exodus started late last spring when word got around in Communist areas that the National Government was making preparations to take care of refugee students. The Ministry did not anticipate a flood of this magnitude. The large numbers of refugees in Nanking and Hankow came largely from Honan and Shantung as a result of the fighting in those areas in the spring. The Ministry is attempting to move the students in the Peiping area to any part of the country to which transportation may be available and the ones in the Yangtze valley into South China, primarily along the Canton–Hankow Railway. Students are most reluctant to follow the Ministry’s directives and it is only under strong compulsion that they do so. A further problem is that adequate preparations to take care of them have not been made and adequate food, clothing and shelter are lacking. Efforts to enlist the students in the army encountered traditional reluctance, which was matched only by the reluctance of the army to have them. As a result of its experience with the student divisions the army takes a very poor view indeed of students as soldiers. Meanwhile, the students, who have nothing to do, and only the barest subsistence of living, vent their dissatisfaction and discontent in disorders such as those referred to above.
The interesting point is that such large numbers of the students who formerly moved to Communist areas are now coming back. The only interpretation which can be put on this change is that conditions for students in Communist areas are by no means as idyllic as Communist propaganda would have one believe and that, in fact, they must be [Page 473] sufficiently bad to compel students to migrate into government areas. As far as we are aware, even their presently bad situation as refugees is not enough to compel any of them to return. We would have supposed that Nationalist propaganda would have seized on this development as an outstanding example of conditions in Communist areas and would have used a number of case studies to illustrate the point. Unfortunately, the contrary is the case. The entire effort in the Chinese press is to play down the fact that there are any refugee students and to minimize their condition. Apparently the Government prefers to cover up its own shortcomings at the expense of what it might gain by emphasizing conditions in Communist areas.
Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy