Editorial Note
No official record of the substance of this meeting has been found. The information given here as to the meeting and the participants is taken from the Log, ante, p. 299. According to all reports, the meeting lasted for at least two hours, and it must have begun earlier than 4:30 if Alanbrooke is correct in indicating (p. 57) that the Chiangs were giving a reception in their own villa as early as 5 p.m. on the same afternoon. The Leahy Diary for November 26 says that Churchill and the Chiangs were with Roosevelt “all the afternoon”. Elliott Roosevelt (p. 166) states: “The afternoon was given over to a final political conference. The Chiangs, the Prime Minister, Harriman, Eden, and Cadogan were with the President in the garden for some two hours, framing the language of the communiqué …”
The Log entry for November 26 states that “A press communiqué announcing the completion of the first phase of the Cairo Conference was agreed upon.… For reasons of security, it was also agreed that this communiqué would not be released to the press until after the completion of the forthcoming conference at Teheran.” The release of the communiqué was also postponed until Stalin’s approval of the text could be obtained at Tehran; see post, pp. 449, 566. For drafts of the communiqué, see post, pp. 399–404. For the final text of the communiqué and correspondence concerning its release, see post, pp. 448–455.
According to Stilwell’s Command Problems, p. 65, the conversation also covered the proposed operations in the China–Burma–India theater, in reference to which Chiang is reported as having agreed to every point that he had rejected the day before; see ante, p. 359, and post, p. 430.
In addition to the subjects mentioned above and those reported as having been discussed at previous Roosevelt–Chiang meetings (see ante, pp. 322, 349), certain other subjects apparently were discussed by Roosevelt and Chiang at Cairo in one or more of their several meetings. These subjects and the sources in which they are mentioned are as follows:
The economic situation in China, including currency stabilization, a billion-dollar loan, and the establishment of a Sino-American
[Page []] [Page [Note]]
[Page 367]
economic commission: post, pp. 441, 804, 845, 861; United States Relations With China, (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1949), pp. 488, 491, 557; The Stilwell Papers, pp. 251–252.
The cost of maintaining American troops in China: United States Relations With China, p. 499.
The disposition of Japanese-held islands in the Pacific: post, p. 868.
The maintenance of post-war security in the Western Pacific: post, p. 868.
The internationalization of the port of Dairen: post, pp. 567, 869, 891; United States Relations With China, p. 558.
The results of the Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers: post, p. 784.
The general plan for post-war international organization: The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–45 volume, p. 140.
The payment for the cost of the airfields to be constructed at Chengtu: Stilwell’s Command Problems, p. 77.
The providing of Lend-Lease equipment for a total of ninety Chinese divisions: post, pp. 484, 889–890; Stilwell’s Command Problems, pp. 64 and 73.