893.00/11–2248: Telegram

The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State

2278. Central News Agency’s New York datelined despatch of November 19, featuring Life editorial entitled “Disaster in China” was prominently displayed in November 21 issue of Shanghai’s English-language China Press.

Article quoted extensively from Life’s editorial urging US to reject any plans for coalition government with Communists and made following comment:

[Page 598]

Life’s editorial appeared coincidentally with American press dispatches from China which said reports have been circulating persistently in Nanking that Ambassador J. Leighton Stuart had advised Chiang Kai-shek [“]to seek peace talks with the Communists and try to form a coalition government”, although agency admitted that Ambassador had denied such activities.

Article further commented: “It may be pointed out here parenthetically that such arguments favoring a coalition are already being aired in Left-wing publications and by many so-called liberal commentators in the US.”

Stuart