Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Remarks by General Marshall at Meeting of the Committee of Three With Commissioners and Officers of Executive Headquarters
As a member of the Committee of Three responsible for creation of this Executive Headquarters, I wish to express my thanks to the Commissioners personally and to all the members of the staff for the splendid manner in which you have carried out your difficult duties up to the present time. Your task was extraordinarily difficult; you had to organize yourselves and become acquainted with each other at the very moment it was most necessary that you bring to bear your influence and direction to terminate hostilities. The tremendous area of country involved and the general lack of communications have added much to the difficulty of your mission. I wish, particularly, to express my personal thanks to the members of the field teams who have really had the hardest and most important task of all. It is not so very difficult to reach a general agreement on a policy gathered around a table at Chungking, or Washington, or London perhaps. The real test is in carrying that policy into successful execution, which the little teams of three men from this headquarters have succeeded in doing. They have individually and as a small group made an inestimable contribution to the peace and future prosperity of Eastern Asia.
What I wish particularly to say to you is this. Your headquarters, I think, is somewhat unique in the world’s history. Two warring factions with the assistance of a neutral agency have actually formed a large and highly efficient administrative and executive headquarters, whose agencies reach over great distances and into remote regions. Your headquarters is rapidly becoming a unified group operating with remarkable efficiency. The continued development of this unity of purpose and this efficiency of execution is becoming of greater and greater importance to China and that means to the world because the peace and prosperity of China is of outstanding importance to the world at large.
You are soon to be given an additional task. One even more important and more difficult than that of terminating hostilities. In Chungking an agreement has been reached for the unification of the armies of China and for the demobilization of most of the troops. Extraordinary to report, it was not very difficult to reach an agreement on this problem which many feared was almost insoluble by peaceful means, but such an agreement has been reached and it will become, at an early date, the mission of this headquarters and its [Page 464] field teams to transmit the orders and supervise the execution of the demobilization and reorganization involved.
I am confident that with the experience you already have had and with the daily increase of your regard and respect for each other and your spirit of cooperation that this exceedingly important and complicated task will be carried out with high spirit for the good of the Chinese people and for the prosperity and dignity of China.
Many individuals will be called upon to make what may seem to them at this time, great personal sacrifices. Some must sacrifice but I think the majority will profit greatly. The prosperity of China is directly dependent upon your execution of this new mission. The prosperity of China will mean the prosperity and happiness of all Chinese. The tremendous resources of China, the industry of its people, the demand of the world for its products all should combine to free the people from their present distress and lift China to its rightful position among the nations of the world.