893.00/2–2448: Telegram
The Consul General at Peiping ( Clubb ) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 10.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to this Consulate General’s despatch no. 2 of January 8,65 forwarding the text of a communication received at Tientsin from (purportedly) a Chinese Communist organ, and to enclose as of possible interest in this general connection a copy (in English translation) of “A Warning from the War Criminal Investigation Division of the Chinese People’s Liberation Armies to Chiang Kai-shek’s Henchmen”,66 as received by a local Chinese personality [Page 114] of high official standing under date February 1, 1948. The communication was in lithograph form but bore the stamp of the aforementioned War Criminal Investigation Division.
The communication refers to the repeated proclamations from the Chinese Communist side that in 1948 they intend to “liberate” the entire Northeast and crush General Fu Tso-yi (Commander-in-Chief, North China Bandit Suppression Headquarters) and take over Peiping, Tientsin and other North China towns, and to the October 10 proclamation to Nationalist officials that they would be treated selectively, and stated that they were willing to give Chiang Kai-shek’s “puppets” a last chance to repent and start anew, stating that neither “American imperialist money” nor munitions would be able to save Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek from his fate. The communication threatened that the names of those officials who persisted in doing evil would be entered on the list of civil war criminals to be dealt with severely by the people: “Anyone who dares to stain his hands with the blood of the people will find the day of Peiping’s liberation the day of his death!”
Respectfully yours,