793.94/16780: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Gauss)
200. Your 339, August 10 [11], 7 a.m. [p.m.] We have been giving sympathetic study to the points raised in your conversation with General Chiang and the Foreign Minister and it is suggested that you take occasion to point this out orally to them, or to other appropriate Chinese officials, and to mention some of the considerations which have occurred to us in this connection as follows:
Declarations by officials of this Government in regard to Thailand and neighboring areas have not, of course, in any way indicated a shifting of our sympathies and support from China to other parts of the Far East or any change in emphasis as regards particular sections of the Far East. This has seemed to us to be obvious, and there have been no indications in the American press, which is usually very sensitive to currents and directions of official interest and concern in matters affecting and comprising our foreign relations, that this Government’s policy of aiding China in every way that is practicable and appropriate has either lessened or experienced any deviation from that objective. Recent declarations have, on the other hand, served to include specifically within the scope of this Government’s repeatedly expressed and energetically implemented policy of extending aid to China, Great Britain and other countries resisting aggression, areas of the Far East whose proximity to China make their inclusion in our policy a matter of vital importance to China as well as to themselves. Reasons for the concern of the Government and the people of the United States in regard to Thailand clearly spring from a recognition of both the specific problem and the broad general problem presented by developments in the region of Thailand. It was not considered in that connection that any specific mention of Yunnan or other part of China would contribute to a clarification of this Government’s attitude—which in respect to all parts of China has repeatedly and abundantly been made clear—nor was it considered that absence of mention of China in the declarations in question would result in any misunderstanding anywhere of this Government’s attitude and policy toward China or toward any other country. Certainly no clearer expression of our purpose to assist China could be uttered than that of the President of the United States in his address of March 15 in which he referred to our policy as one of “unqualified, immediate, all-out aid” for China and other countries resisting aggression.80
In the light of all pertinent aspects of the situation in the Far East, it seems to us to be self-evident that specific inclusion of Thailand [Page 714] and neighboring areas in declarations of American policy at this time are in themselves further indication of American support for China and of American interest in protection of the approaches of the Burma Road.
On August 19, the Secretary of State, in a conversation with the Chinese Ambassador, stated to the Ambassador that we have under consideration various possible methods of giving augmented emphasis to the fact that China is playing a valiant and valued part among the powers that are actively resisting aggression.
- Department of State Bulletin, March 15, 1941, pp. 277, 280.↩