893.00/13248: Telegram
The Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12:40 p.m.]
45. 1. An attempt was made this morning to assassinate Wang Ching-wei, Chiang Kai-shek and other leaders. The official version [Page 395] of the incident is that immediately following the taking of a group photograph of the plenary session, delegates gathered before the Central Party Headquarters, three Chinese stepped forward from among the onlookers and fired at the delegates, wounding Wang himself in the left cheek, the left arm and one shot going through his back into the left lung. Guards shot down one of the gunmen but did not kill him and the other two fled into the party headquarters and at this hour have not yet surrendered. Wang was taken to the Central Hospital, his condition being described as “not critical”.
2. I am reliably informed that Chiang completely escaped injury but Chen Chung-ming, Vice Minister of Railways, received four bullet wounds and Kan Nai-kuang, formerly Vice and Acting Minister of the Interior, who has recently been attachéd to Chiang’s Wuchang field headquarters, and a certain Chang Hsi were also wounded.26
By mail to Tokyo.
- In telegram No. 46, November 1, 4 p.m., Mr. Atcheson stated that reports of the wounding of Chen, Kan, and Chang Chi were incorrect (893.00/13250).↩