893.00/3–2245
The Vice Consul at Chengtu (Service) to the Secretary of State 75
[Received April 19.]
Sir: I have the honor to submit an account of an interview held on March 12, 1945, with General Liu Wen-hui, chairman of the Sikang Provincial Government, who returned recently to Sikang following a month’s visit to this city. General Liu shares the distinction with Generals Teng Hsi-hou and P’an Wen-hua, Pacification Commissioner and Vice Pacification Commissioner, respectively, for Szechuan and Sikang, of being one of the most powerful provincial leaders in west China. Like Teng, he has in the past been a governor of Szechuan. P’an, Liu and Teng form a triumvirate of provincial political power supported by personal armies said to total approximately 100,000 troops.
General Liu appeared to be in good health. His lean face, high cheek-bones and alert, shrewd eyes bespoke a cunning nature; his questions were abrupt and to the point. After a few courteous remarks of a personal nature the chairman asked about news from the Pacific front. He displayed great interest in the B–29 incendiary bombing of the heart of Tokyo, and in the ferocity of the battle for Iwo Jima. When the writer turned the discussion to the course of the war in China, General Liu remarked with some bitterness that the Generalissimo (he used the term “that one in Chungking”) is managing that business, and that thus far provincial troops in Szechuan have received no American equipment. The general then brought up the subject of possible American landings on the coast of China, and said that he hoped that Chinese troops near the coast who were prepared to cooperate with the Americans in operations against [Page 300] the Japanese would be properly equipped by the U.S. Army without regard to the attitude of the Central Government. He added that it was scarcely conceivable that the Generalissimo would acquiesce in the arming of Chinese Communist New Fourth and Eighth Route forces in Kiangsu and Shangtung when his present policy is to refuse equipment to provincial troops76 in Free China. When questioned concerning conditions in Sikang, General Liu stated that the province was quiet and that there were no outstanding problems at present. In terminating the interview, he invited the writer to visit him there in the spring, following his return from a projected trip to Chungking in April or May.
The Department will have noted from reports of the writer’s predecessors at Chengtu that General Liu has in the past displayed no reticence in their presence in making comments critical of the Central Government. Liu may be considered the spokesman and “brains” of the Szechuan triumvirate; Teng is easygoing and disposed to compromise, while P’an, who controls most of the provincial troops in west China, is said to nurse dreams of an old-style governorship uninhibited by interference from a central government. General Liu’s comments in the course of this interview reflect the semi-autonomous spirit of the Szechuan warlords, who resent the encroachments of central authority at the expense of their traditional domination of this great province. The strength of these warlords, supported by great numbers of secondary military leaders and by the notoriously reactionary Szechuan secret societies, will prove a troublesome problem to the Generalissimo in his efforts to obtain the wholehearted support of China’s masses for the unification of the nation and the prosecution of the war against Japan.
Respectfully yours,