893.00/11–2248: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 22—6:47 a. m.]
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.”