Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Volume III, China, Microfiche Supplement

818. Letter 72 from Clough to Johnson¹

Letter No. 72

Washington, August 2, 1957

Dear Alex:

We have just received your letter of July 26 with your recommendation against mentioning at Geneva any partial relaxation which may take place in our ban on travel to Communist China. The results of the meeting to which I referred in my letter of July 18 were inconclusive as you will see from the enclosed memorandum of conversation. The Department has just written to all news organizations which maintain at least one full-time correspondent abroad, inquiring whether they would station a correspondent in China if it were possible to do so. It is hoped on the basis of the replies to reach a more realistic estimate of the number of American correspondents who might be stationed in Communist China on a more or less permanent basis. The matter will then be discussed further with the press.

Wang’s comments on the Secretary’s speech have been paralleled by other Chinese Communist statements, notably a speech to the National Peoples’ Congress by Chang Han-fu (copy enclosed). Judging from these statements I would expect Wang to maintain his rather hard line at the next meeting. We have just received a report from a highly sensitive source to the effect that Mao Tse-tung in his speech of February 27 stated that the most appropriate time to establish diplomatic relations with the United States would be during the third 5-year plan (1962–1967), since the disparity between the two countries in economic power would be considerably reduced by that time. However, he added that the Formosa problem would have to be resolved first. This confirms indications we have received from other sources that the Chinese Communists do not expect any early progress in the direction of formal relations with the United States and are willing to bide their time.

A correspondent telephoned Mrs. Fecteau to tell her that the press was about to be permitted to send representatives to Communist China. Her immediate and spontaneous response, which was picked up by the wire services, was that if they went she wanted to go too and see her son. She has not yet made any request of the Department, but certainly if correspondents go we can expect immediate pressure from relatives of the prisoners to be allowed to do so.

I have sent you a copy of the memorandum of conversation with Mr. Dalal from the Indian Embassy concerning the impounding by Treasury of a sum of money from another departing Chinese, Hsiao Chi-mei. We have since furnished Mr. Dalal at his request copies of pertinent extracts from the Foreign Assets Control Regulations and the trade control regulations of the Department of Commerce. I have explained to him that these regulations apply to everyone alike and that there is nothing in the Agreed Announcement which requires us to discriminate in favor of returning Chinese with respect to export of goods or money to Communist China.

Defense is instructing Panmunjom to make a statement in the MAC on the missing 450. The text of the statement is the one you approved while in Washington of which I am enclosing a copy. We do not know yet when the UNC will make the statement, but we hope it will be before your September meeting.

At the request of Fathers McCarthy and Houle, the American Red Cross sent a telegraphic plea to the Chinese Red Cross in Peiping for the release of Father Wagner on humanitarian grounds. A curt message just received by the American Red Cross reads “Authorities contacted not consider release J.P. Wagner.”

We have been in correspondence with John Dexter, who is being trained in Taiwan to replace Bob Ekvall as interpreter next January. Present plans are for him to leave Taiwan September 18th and receive an additional month’s training in the Department’s Language Services Division following his leave and before going to Geneva. We are negotiating with EUR in the hope that we can have him put on the EUR payroll as a regular member of the Consulate General staff, but with the understanding that he would be available to you as desired and that he would receive further language training at the Ecole des Interpretes between meetings and in addition to his regular duties. He is one of our most talented young Chinese language officers and has been working hard in preparation for this assignment. I am confident you will find him satisfactory, although I realize it will be quite a jolt to part with Bob, who has the work so well in hand. We want John to have a week or two of consultation with Bob either in Washington or Geneva depending upon how the schedule of meetings is running at that time. The ideal thing would be for him to sit in with Bob at a meeting before he takes over on his own.

Mr. Robertson will be away the last two weeks of August and I am hoping to take off the last week myself. It would therefore be much more convenient for us if your September meeting could fall on September 12 rather than September 5th.

Regarding the sorting and preparation of material received in Geneva during your absences, I believe that if we keep the volume down to the necessary minimum, and follow your suggestion of sending copies whenever possible to Ed in London as well as to Prague, it should prove possible for Bob or Ed to arrive in Geneva a few hours ahead of you and complete the sorting in that time.

We have asked that the FBIS Daily Reports no longer be sent you, and will scan them here for items of interest to you. However, we asked that the ticker service for the few days before each meeting be continued, as the volume should not be too great, and as otherwise you might miss something of importance.

I believe that we have taken care of the other points you raised in your letter following the last meeting. However, we received only the original of that letter, and it had to be routed to the front office, where it seems temporarily to have disappeared. I hope you will remind your secretary to send us a carbon in the future, and if you have a copy of the last letter we would appreciate your enclosing it in your next.

Sincerely yours,

Ralph N. Clough

Enclosures:

1. Copy of memorandum of conversation of July 18 re Meeting with Radio and Press Representatives.

2. Copy of Text of speech by Chang Han-fu.

3. Copy of Draft Statement for use in MAC.

4. Copy of Exchange of Telegram between ARC and Chinese Communist Red Cross re Release of Fr. Wagner.

5. Copy of letter to Mr. Dalal with extracts from the Foreign Assets Control Regulations.

6. Copy of Memorandum of 8/2 to Mr. Clough on Currency & Commodity Controls on Chinese Aliens Departing for Communist China.

1. Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret; Official–Informal. Drafted by Clough and Osborn. A copy was sent to Martin.