893.00/11699: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 2—2:30 a.m.]
4. Following from American Consul General at Nanking:
“December 31, 4 p.m. 1. Sun Fo and other Southern leaders who went to Shanghai, December 25, returned December 27 and the session of the Central Executive Committee has been harmonious until it closed on December 29. In a manifesto the committee announced that it would shortly convoke a national emergency conference and a peaceful national debt salvation conference to formulate plans for overcoming the present national emergency. The organic law of the National Government was revised with the professed object of lessening strict party control and the President of the Executive Yuan has been given somewhat the status of Prime Minister responsible to the Central Executive Committee of the party.
2. The committee filled by election all the important party and Government posts giving a great preponderance to men from Southern provinces. Great stress has been laid on the necessity for national unity and all factions are represented in the party and Government organs. Feng Yu-hsiang14 arrived in time for the closing ceremonies but the prospects for a successful coalition government are diminished by the absence from the capital of outstanding leaders such as Chiang Kai-shek, T. V. Soong, Wang Ching-wei, Hu Han-min and Chang Hsueh-liang. I have observed considerable doubt whether the members of the Government as now constituted will be able to work together harmoniously and efficiently.
3. The election of Eugene Chen as Minister of Foreign Affairs seems to occasion misgivings among Foreign Office officials. A Shanghai [Page 714] banker, Huang Han-liang, is made Acting Minister of Finance with the asserted support of the Shanghai Chinese banking community. T. V. Soong and Wellington Koo intend to go to France almost immediately and Chiang Kai-shek shows no present intention of taking up his post in the party headquarters.
4. A prominent party official told me confidentially last night that the National Government and the Nationalist Party have signally lost in prestige of late through lack of success in coping with diplomatic and financial difficulties and with communism and flood conditions. He observed that the conquest of Manchuria by Japan [is?] the most effective factor in destroying popular confidence in the Government and Party working. He pointed out that the Nationalist Party is the only organized force working for the welfare of the nation and that its destruction would leave the country to communism and anarchy. He insisted that the Chinese Communist Party is well organized and that it is in close touch with the Third International.
5. The newly elected party and Government officials will assume office January 1st.”
- Former commander of the Kuominchun (People’s Army) of North China.↩