893.00/11–948
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State47
| Participants: | Dr. Tingfu F. Tsiang, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations |
| The Secretary | |
| Mr. Jacobs |
Dr. Tsiang called this afternoon in connection with the four points which were the subject of his call on November 6th.48
I said that I had received a reply from the Department and proceeded to take up the last three points first. Concerning the second point I said that the Department viewed unfavorably the appointment at this time of a high ranking officer to head a special mission to China due, first, to the difficulty of finding such an officer with adequate current grasp of the situation in China to act promptly, and thus [Page 198] effectively in the present emergency, and second, for the foregoing reason, the efforts of such an officer would be foredoomed to failure.
Concerning the third point, I said the Department had advised that the flow of munitions was being expedited but I had no information concerning quantities.
Concerning the fourth point, I said that the matter of a Chinese appeal to UN at this time was one within the competence of the Chinese Government but, as I had already told Dr. Tsiang, we did not feel that it would accomplish any good in meeting the present emergency, while on the other hand it might do some harm by giving the Soviets an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.
I then turned to the first point (relating to the appointment of US officers in actual command of Chinese army units) and said that the Department had said nothing, apparently feeling that it required no answer. I remarked that I had asked for clarification but expected a negative reply since the action contemplated presented complications which made it undesirable.
We then discussed in a general way the military situation in China as we knew it without reaching any conclusions except to observe that, without knowing how much matériel and how many men the Nationalist Armies had lost in Manchuria and how much matériel and men still remain in central China to oppose the Communist advance toward Nanking, it was most difficult to assess the situation.