761.93/1593
The Chargé in the Soviet Union (Henderson) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 25.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith, in translation,98 the text of an article which appeared in the Moscow magazine Bolshevik, No. 8, for April 15, 1937, dealing with the relations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China. The article is from the pen of Wang Ming, the leading Chinese in the central Moscow apparatus [Page 92] of the Communist International.* The magazine Bolshevik is the organ of the Central Committee of the Ail-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks). The same article appeared, with a few minor alterations, in the Moscow magazine Kommunisticheski Internatsional (Communist International), No. 3, for March 1937. This magazine is the organ of the Executive Committee of the Communist International.
The appearance of an article of this sort in the Communist International alone would be ample indication that it bore the stamp of complete approval of the Kremlin. Its appearance in the Bolshevik as well leaves not the faintest shred of doubt on this point. Thus the article is in reality an expression of Moscow’s policy toward the political situation in China, and the first of this sort that has appeared for a long time. For this reason it was thought that the Department might be interested in receiving the full text of the document, in translation, despite the redundancy of phraseology which it shares with most expressions of Russian communist thought.
The Embassy considers the following points in this article to be of particular interest:
- (1)
- the demonstration of the intimate connections of the Communist International (i. e., the leaders of the Soviet Government) with the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Ked Army, and the Chinese Soviets, and the expression of Moscow’s approval of the policy now being carried out by the Chinese communists;
- (2)
- the obvious desire for an open alliance between China and the Soviet Union directed against Japan (pages 11, 21, and 22);
- (3)
- the willingness of Moscow to have the Chinese communists negotiate with Nanking on the basis of the four conditions laid down by the Third Plenum of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang (page 22);
- (4)
- the simultaneous warning that “there is a certain limit to the willingness of the communists to compromise on political matters” (page 23);
- (5)
- the reproaches levied against Nanking for concentrating large military forces in northwestern China instead of the evacuation of all Nanking troops from Shansi [Shensi?] and Kansu, for allowing Ma Bu-fan to continue his action against the Red Army units in western Kansu, for transferring the Northeastern Red Army to Honan and Anhwei, for not giving Chang Hsueh-liang full personal freedom and restoring him to his military and political posts, for the murder of General Wang I-cheh, and for “the deliberate stalling for time in the negotiations with the Communist Party” and for excessive demands with respect to the Red Army and the Communist Party (page 29);
- (6)
- the interesting reply to Japanese accusations that the United Front is only a temporary maneuver of the communists and that the latter will eventually turn against the Kuomintang (page 36);
- (7)
- the reply to the charge that the United Front movement “benefits only the U.S.S.R.” (page 37);
- (8)
- the indication that the Communist Party of China has received instructions to take the initiative in making certain concessions, as a gesture, even before the conclusion of negotiations with the Nanking Government; and
- (9)
- the use of the phrase “the cause of all advanced mankind” in relation to the battle of the Chinese people “against Japanese imperialism” (page 38). This phrase was coined by Stalin to apply to the cause of the republican forces in Spain. Phrases coined by Stalin are not bandied about loosely and the appearance of this one with relation to China is equivalent to an expression of policy.
The significance of this article has already been discussed in the last report of this Mission on developments of Soviet relations with Far Eastern countries (despatch No. 256, April 30, 1937).99
Respectfully yours,