Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270: Telegram
Colonel George V. Underwood to General Marshall 90
1915. Official Chinese reaction to your recall, statement and appointment not yet apparent.
Swift sequence of surprise events has temporarily stunned all quarters, but distinct reactions are expected as soon as the shock subsides.
[Page 692]This morning, 9 January local calendar, I called on Doctor Stuart. He talked yesterday afternoon to Doctor T. V. Soong who was greatly pleased with your statement and regarded your appointment as Secretary of State as most fortunate for China. Doctor Soong then lunged into a discussion of reform measures and prospects of financial assistance from the United States. Doctor Stuart advised him to proceed with urgent reconstruction and that he probably could look to the United States for help on non-controversial projects. I advised Doctor Stuart to fend commitments in the economic field pending developments following your consultations in Washington.
I sensed pressure from Doctor Soong to drag Doctor Stuart into policy matters hoping thereby to obtain favorable commitments. For this reason and because he touched on the subject I took the occasion to suggest respectfully that his role in the present interim period might well be one of watchful waiting and careful observation of Chinese reaction to recent events and manifestation of future intentions, particularly regarding a genuine Government offer for renewal of negotiations and Communist reaction thereto. He endorsed this view.
Doctor Stuart had expected the Generalissimo to call for him following your statement and rumored appointment. This was not done and Doctor Stuart now intends to see the Generalissimo this afternoon. Doctor Stuart said that the primary purpose of the meeting was to carry out your instructions for following up your explanation to the Generalissimo of your sudden recall and the necessity of your frank statement. He also intended to inform the Generalissimo that knowledge of your forthcoming appointment as Secretary of State had prevented your giving a definitive answer to the Generalissimo’s request that you remain in China as his advisor. I recommended against this course, based on your explicit instructions that no indication should be given of any prior knowledge concerning the State Department post. He then stated that he would simply refer indirectly to your bewilderment over the 10 January date mentioned in radios concerning your recall which was now explained by your appointment and which had complicated your discussions with the Generalissimo regarding the advisory post.
The announcement of the confirmation of your appointment as Secretary of State came while I was in Doctor Stuart’s office. He asked me to tell you that he would always be pleased to serve under you in any capacity. He hoped that the fellowship developed in China would endure. He would rather serve under you than under any other person. On regarding his role in China, he liked to think of himself as following up your sound, constructive policies. It was his permanent intention to seek to help the Chinese Government to [Page 693] achieve solid reforms in order to win the confidence of the people of China and the world at large. This course, in the end, he regarded as the surest way to solve the Communist problem.
Mister Butterworth just returned from seeing the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Doctor Wang asked Mister Butterworth to convey “His every good wish for success in your new high office.” Mister Butterworth cast a fly over Doctor Wang for reaction to your statement but Doctor Wang did not rise to the bait. He gave the impression of being pleased but his only direct comment was that your statement was “Unusually frank.” This message has been shown to Mister Butterworth who expressed agreement with the contents.
- General Marshall was vacationing in Hawaii and forwarded this telegram on January 12, 1947, to Colonel Carter for the Office of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State.↩