893.00B/11–2849
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)
| Participants: | Mr. Thomas C. Davis, Canadian Ambassador to China |
| Mr. Ralph Collins, Canadian Embassy | |
| Mr. W. Walton Butterworth, Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs | |
| Mr. Livingston T. Merchant, Bureau of Far Eastern Affairs |
Ambassador Davis, who is staying at the Canadian Embassy on a brief visit to Washington, came in by appointment this morning to [Page 202] see me. He explained that he wished to renew his old acquaintance and communicate for what they might be worth the conclusions which he had reached from his two and a half years in China.
First, he said he had no doubt that the Communist leaders of China were orthodox Communists who regarded the Soviet Union as their one great friend and whose foreign policy line they would faithfully follow. Secondly, Judge Davis said he was convinced that because of the basic characteristics of the Chinese people, the present Communist leaders in China would be unable to “Communize” the Chinese people. Thirdly, he believed that the nation which had exerted the greatest influence in China for the past century and toward whom the Chinese people were basically the most friendly is the United States. He referred to the widespread recognition that of all the great powers the U.S. was the only one that had pursued a non-predatory policy with respect to China and, in fact, had given greatly of its substance I and friendship to China. Lastly, he expressed the opinion that by ultimately recognizing the Peking regime, the United States could best in future exercise its potentially great influence, which would not be easily or quickly dissipated by the Communists’ propaganda. In this connection, he recognized that consideration of such a move was out of the question at the present time and he accepted as fact that the United Kingdom and certain other nations, including members of the Commonwealth, would recognize Peking before we did. As a matter of tactics, he expressed the hope that recognition by such nations would be spread over a period of time in order to avoid simultaneous recognition by all of the Western Powers except the United States, thereby leaving the United States in a position of prominent isolation.
Ambassador Davis’s estimate of the future was, on the whole, optimistic. He believes that the present Communist leadership in its necessary search for administrative and technical skills will be forced to dilute itself by admission to high positions of non-Communists who will exercise an increasingly moderating influence. He intimated also that he felt the Russians by their natural arrogance would encounter difficulties of their own making. I pointed out that his appraisal seemed to omit the possibility or probability of a complete ruthlessness on the part of the Chinese Communists which would result in the liquidation of non-Communists once their usefulness had passed and, in any event, before they could become a threat to the present leadership.
It was apparent that Ambassador Davis, who always worked on the closest terms with our Embassy in Nanking, had made this visit to Washington for the purpose of informally supplementing the Canadian [Page 203] Embassy’s earlier formal notification to us of Canada’s intention to recognize Peking in the not distant future.