Office of the Historian

893.00/1–104918

The Appointed Ambassador in China (Hurley) to Messrs. Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai

[Chungking,] 7 January 1945.

Dear Chairman Mao and Dear General Chow: I am in receipt of your two messages of the 24th and 28th December,19 the former asking for the National Government’s consideration of your five point proposal20 and the latter asking that the National Government should first voluntarily carry out an additional four points.

Your second message is a departure from our original procedure which was to arrive at an agreement on general principles before discussing any specific details. I believe we should, all of us, continue our efforts to arrive at a settlement by keeping to our original procedure.

On your initiative and with the consent of the National Government I visited Yenan, conscious that I am dealing with patriotic Chinese on both sides, who desire to unite to fight the common enemy. My stay in Chungking has convinced me that the National Government is sincerely desirous of making such concessions on its part as will make a settlement practicable.

[Page 164]

As such matters obviously cannot be set forth by letter or telegram and since General Chow could not come to Chungking, I have secured the approval of the National Government of the following suggestions which I now make to you:

1.
Dr. T. V. Soong, Acting President of the Executive Yuan, should make a brief visit to Yenan with Dr. Wang Shih-chieh, General Chang Tse-chung and myself, to discuss matters with you in person and that
2.
If agreement is reached in principle, Chairman Mao and General Chow should return with us to Chungking to conclude the agreement.

I shall be glad if you will give this suggestion your careful consideration and reply by letter through the bearer of this letter.

With greetings of the season, I am

Your friend,

Patrick Hurley
  1. All documents on this file number were taken from a microfilm roll received from the Embassy in China at Nanking by the Department in January 1949.↩
  2. Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. vi, pp. 745 and 755.↩
  3. Dated November 10, 1944, ibid., p. 687.↩