Office of the Historian

893.00/1–1549: Telegram

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

Nanking, January 15, 1949—3 p. m.
[Received January 16—1:59 a. m.]

122. According to North Shensi broadcast January 13, General Tu Yu-ming1 “will not escape punishment of revolutionary law” and “will receive just and severe retribution for his crimes in general and for repeatedly using poison gas in defiance of PLA2 orders in particular”. The broadcast recalled that Tu was listed among the 43 war criminals announced Xmas Day and that “his punishment would have been mitigated if he had ordered his troops to surrender immediately, did not damage equipment and did not use poison gas”. The broadcast stated that unless Fu Tso-yi and other commanders in Peiping and Tientsin mend their ways they will be subjected to same retribution. US Military Attaché3 has expressed belief CCP charge of Nationalist use of poison gas is not true.

Sent Department; pouched Shanghai.

Stuart
  1. Captured by Chinese Communists on January 10.↩
  2. People’s Liberation Army (Communist).↩
  3. Brig. Gen. Robert H. Soule.↩