Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Notes on Meeting Between General Marshall and Dr. Stuart, Nanking, September 17, 1946, 7 p.m.
| Also present: | Colonel Hutchin |
General Marshall showed to Doctor Stuart his notes of conferences with the Generalissimo of September 15 and 17 at Kuling. While Doctor Stuart read these notes, General Marshall started to read the three memos which were described briefly for him in 1514.63
Doctor Stuart stated that he noticed the Generalissimo was disturbed over the press report he supposedly made concerning the National Assembly to the effect that if it met without the Communists, it would be ineffective or abortive. Doctor Stuart said that he of course made no such press statement.
General Marshall replied that he told the Generalissimo that, realizing that, both Doctor Stuart and himself were sometimes quoted when they haven’t even seen the press.
Doctor Stuart then gave a resume of his dealings with the Communist Delegation during General Marshall’s absence. Chou En Lai and Wang Ping Nan were insisting on two things: first, assurances from the Government representatives that the Communists can control at least 14 votes in the State Council and second, the early issuance of a cease fire order.
On Sunday morning Wang Ping Nan called again. He was considerably exercised over recent war news, stating that he felt the Communists could not stand up against this all out offensive for very long. [Page 197] Doctor Stuart pointed out to him that this was all the more reason why the Five Man Committee should meet immediately. He talked to Wang as a friend and he used every argument that he could to urge this initial meeting of the Five Man Committee. He wanted the Government representatives to hear what Chou En Lai had so often said to him and, more than anything else, he wanted Chou to give this concrete evidence that the Communists can and do keep their word. That afternoon Chou went to Shanghai but just before he left, Wang Ping Nan called on Dr. Stuart again. General Marshall had been given the gist of this meeting also, in a message sent to Kuling.
Monday morning Wang Ping Nan came again. In the interim Dr. Stuart had seen the Government representatives who felt they must maintain the same position, which was really the only one they could maintain, that is that the place to discuss all this was in a meeting of the Five Man Committee. Chou En Lai had indicated he was ready to come back when the Committee of Three would meet.
This morning (Tuesday) when Wang came, he said that the Communists wanted, more than anything else, to put an end to this fighting. Wang felt that if General Marshall and Dr. Stuart would say that this Five Man Committee was the road or the way leading to a cessation of hostilities, then he would be willing to call Chou back from Shanghai. Dr. Stuart told Wang Ping Nan that he thought General Marshall’s answer would be that the Americans would do everything they could in the course of mediation but, of course, there could be no absolute guarantee.
General Marshall thought that the first thing to do was to rid both Chou’s and Wang Ping Nan’s minds of any thought that this Five Man Committee was a Government proposition because it wasn’t, that he and Doctor Stuart proposed it in order to break a stalemate. The Generalissimo has finally been prevailed upon to settle the Northern Kiangsu issue of local governments in the State Council, which had been the point mainly responsible for the stalemate on June 30th last.
General Chou should realize that he would lose nothing by going into this meeting and he should also realize that Doctor Lo is now wrecking China for his own political purposes. It is entirely probable that American mediation can stop the fighting quite quickly if this Five Man Committee could meet and reach some sort of an agreement.
Another important factor is that the Government representatives should realize that they are expected to discuss the questions of the number of representatives of each party to comprise the State Council and the veto power problem. These two major questions were the only issues that were to be discussed and settled by the Five Man Committee and the Generalissimo confirms this view.
The Generalissimo had asked General Marshall to analyze the [Page 198] compromise solution General Marshall had mentioned before, i. e., 9 Communist delegates plus 4 from each of the two minority parties and 3 non-Party members. General Marshall thought that this would give them within one vote of a veto power. If the Communists can’t win over one man out of the remaining 27, then they probably don’t deserve a veto for the particular legislation in question. In that group of non-Communist controlled votes, there is bound to be some liberal minded, free thinker who would not go along in opposition to a bad piece of legislation.
Another thing, Wang should be reminded of in his conviction that the Government is playing the Communist false, [is] that he chooses to forget that the Communist delegation refused to submit a list of divisions within the prescribed three weeks until everything politically was perfect from their point of view. He chooses to forget that the Communist delegation wouldn’t list their 10 divisions for the Kalgan setup and that they asked to delay the opening of the Kalgan Training Center until July 1st. The Communists choose to forget that [their?] offensive action at Changchun and their inexcusable operations from 9 to 14 June period in Shantung Peninsula. The Communists should be made to remember these acts of theirs that fostered the Government conviction that no confidence could be placed in their agreements.
Dr. Stuart then proposed that he inform Wang Ping Nan tomorrow, Wednesday morning, something to the effect that: “General Marshall and Dr. Stuart advised the meeting of the informal Committee of Five in the confident expectation that this would open the way for a cessation of hostilities. The further negotiations should be concerned with military issues in the Committee of Three. General Marshall and Dr. Stuart will both do everything in their power to end the fighting as soon as possible.”
General Marshall thought the statement was all right with the substitution of the word “suggest” for the word “advise” as the point is: it is really General Marshall and Dr. Stuart’s own suggestion that there be an informal Committee of Five.