Office of the Historian

500.CC/3–1445

Memorandum by the Secretary of State to President Roosevelt

[Washington,] March 14, 1945.

Ambassador Hurley has suggested that you might wish to send the attached telegram to Chiang Kai-shek54 in regard to Chinese Communist representation on the Chinese delegation to the San Francisco conference. We have discussed the matter with General Hurley and find ourselves in full accord with his suggestion and with the objectives which have prompted him to make it.

Briefly, the suggestion is that you invite Chiang’s attention to the advantages which might flow from the inclusion of representatives of the Chinese Communist and other political parties on the Chinese delegation to the San Francisco conference. Two advantages are mentioned: the favorable impression on the conference and the impetus to political unification of China.55

E. K. Stettinius, Jr.
  1. See telegram No. 447, March 15, 8 p.m., to the Chargé in China, p. 283.↩
  2. Notation by President Roosevelt: “O.K. F.D.R.”.↩