611.95A241/12–1354: Telegram
No. 443
The Chargé in India (Weil) to the Department of State1
792. Repeated information Ottawa 3, London 97. Department pass USUN New York unnumbered. From Weil. Canadian High Commissioner Reid today handed me a copy of his secret telegram to Ottawa reporting conversation with Secretary General Pillai December 12 in which Pillai gave Reid “statement of Chou En-lai’s views as expressed to Indian Ambassador” in Peiping. These views had been mentioned to Reid by R.K. Nehru on December 10 but were described in greater detail by Pillai.
Following are highlights of Chou En-lai’s views reported in Reid’s telegram of December 12 which Reid assumes is being passed on to Embassy Ottawa and Department:
- a.
- Chou considered Charges against China “unfair”; referred to United States’ action of “shipping 10,000 Chinese volunteers to Formosa” and to United States defense pact “with Formosa” and said recent British attitude “most unsatisfactory”.
- b.
- Question of “repatriation of Chinese nationals in United States” had been turned over to Consul General in Geneva for further discussion. List of United States nationals in China provided by United States2 had referred to 11 airmen as “United States nationals in China not as prisoners of war”. Chinese “had not yet been given any credit” for letting off “three journalists and others”.
- c.
- Chou alleged there was “strong case” against convicted “spies”, based “not only on independently ascertained facts but on confessions”.
- d.
- Chinese had followed “lenient policy” and if convicted airmen’s behavior “remained good, their cases would be reviewed” but China would not be “intimidated”.
- e.
- Of the “26 Chinese in United States who had applied to return to China” four had been given permission, but none allowed to leave.
- f.
- If debate on Korea were to take place Chinese would raise question of “10,000 Chinese POWs illegally held in Formosa”. “Great indignation” prevailed in China over “these POWs as well as over Formosa”.
- g.
- “If better relations prevailed between China and United States, Chinese method of deciding cases of 11 airmen would have been different”.
Reid said that in course of conversation with Foreign Secretary R.K. Nehru about December 3, Nehru had voluntarily given him gist of Chinese Communist reply to Indian Ambassador’s request for information presumably stimulated by Ambassador Allen’s earlier approach to MEA. Reid said on December 6 he received instructions to convey to Prime Minister Nehru Saint Laurent’s3 and Pearson’s4 views that intensity of feeling in United States was serious and that while they did not know what Nehru might be able to do, they wanted him to know their views. When Reid conveyed this to Prime Minister evening December 6, Nehru said he had already received report from Krishna Menon on same subject which he had communicated to Indian Ambassador Peiping, and he would also convey Pearson’s and St. Laurent’s views to Indian Ambassador. Reid said that on December 10 he received from R.K. Nehru a preliminary report on Chou En-lai’s views as expressed to Indian Ambassador Peiping, which were described more fully by Secretary General Pillai on December 12 and reported in telegram summarized above.
I left with Reid a copy of the story on airmen received here in SAC 594 of December 10 (news file)5 which he said he was glad to have particularly because he had not previously known that case of airmen had been specifically brought to attention of Chinese Communists as early as September 1953.
Three out of four editorials appearing in four Delhi English-language dailies December 11–13 praise United States’ restraint, criticize Red Chinese bellicosity, and express view espionage Charges unjustified (Embpresstel December 13).5
- Counselor of Embassy Thomas E. Weil was in Charge of the Embassy in the absence of Minister Donald D. Kennedy. Ambassador Allen, whose name erroneously appears on the source text as the sender of the telegram, had left New Delhi Nov. 30.↩
- Reference is to a list given to Wang Ping-nan by U. Alexis Johnson in Geneva on June 10; see Secto 415 from Geneva, Document 212.↩
- Canadian Prime Minister Louis S. Saint Laurent.↩
- Canadian Foreign Minister Lester B. Pearson.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩