893.00/15019
The Chargé in China (Vincent) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 25.]
Sir: Referring to my telegram no. 613 of April 29, 10 a.m.,57 concerning conditions in the Peiping area, I have the honor to enclose for the Department’s information a copy of a memorandum57 describing conditions in that area and the reaction of Chinese youth coming from that area to the treatment accorded them by the Central Government authorities.
The information contained in the memorandum was obtained from a Chinese graduate of Catholic University at Peiping who in company with other students left Peiping on January 20. He states that practically all Chinese organizations at Peiping are secretly honeycombed with Chungking and Communist adherents, the latter being particularly strong in the Hsin Min Hui. Many of the students in the four universities now functioning at Peiping are members either of the San Min Chu I Youth Corps or of the Chan Kan Tuan. The students act as espionage agents for the Chungking Government or the Communists [Page 229] with respect to Japanese military, economic, governmental and political activities and some of them engage in terroristic activities.
The group with which the informant traveled proceeded from Peiping by a new route, now being used by travelers from that area, which lies along the Ping-Han Railway to Hsinhsiang, Honan, thence by the Taoching Railway to Huaiching from which point they proceeded overland to Wangchao. At that place contact was made with Nanking puppet troops who provided them with passes for entry into Free China and who appeared to maintain close liaison with the Chungking authorities. From Wangchao they proceeded south across the Yellow River and then to Loyang.
The informant and his party had left Peiping with the assistance of the Chan Kan Tuan which had invited them to go to Sian for a six months military training course upon completion of which they would be eligible to become officers in the Chinese army. Representatives of this organization, the head of which is said to be General Hu Tsung-nan, met them at Sian and questioned them closely, apparently being extremely suspicious of their possible connections with the Communists. The quarters given them there consisted of damp dirty rooms with mud floors and without beds or bedclothing and they could obtain no indication of what type of work they would train for other than a vague statement that they might become active in the occupied areas after some training. This discrepancy between what had been promised them at Peiping and actual conditions at Sian led them to leave Sian and proceed to Chengtu and Chungking. Similar treatment of some of the group had occurred in the case of those who applied for positions as interpreters with the Chinese troops in India. After taking the required examinations, they were told that they were not to go to India but to the Yunnan-Burma border for work with transport organs of the army. The result was a feeling that the Chungking authorities had not been honest and fair in their treatment of students who were attracted here by promises which had not been fulfilled.
These young Chinese are perhaps representative of many others from well-to-do families who have come to Free China imbued with a desire to contribute something to the war effort against Japan and who now find themselves without money or means of support save for the near-starvation salaries they receive at government offices. Some of them are returning to their homes in occupied areas, feeling that life with their families under Japanese rule is preferable to a bare subsistence-level existence in Free China. The informant made his remarks about the treatment accorded him with obvious reluctance and an air of bewilderment that the Chungking Government could be so indifferent to Chinese youth it had persuaded to come to [Page 230] Free China. He displayed only a certain grudging admiration for the Communists, praising them for their activities in North China, their treatment of the Chinese people and their endurance of hardships but maintained that their political beliefs were not suitable for China.
While it is realized that Chinese students have largely remained outside actual war activities, particularly in Free China, students in the occupied areas who have been far removed from Chungking authority, who consequently have perhaps been less aware of the workings and trends of the Kuomintang and of the Central Government and who have listened to radio propaganda emanating from Chungking have in many instances given active and concrete support to Chungking activities in the occupied areas. These are the persons who would form a base of support for the present Chinese Government after the war in its effort to reestablish its authority in the areas from which the Japanese had withdrawn. The situation arising from the above-described treatment of students is one which is therefore likely to have an unfavorable effect on the influence of the Chungking Government in those areas which are particularly important in view of the Communist position there and the latter’s appeal to Chinese youth.
Respectfully yours,