893.00/14128
Memorandum by the Third Secretary of Embassy in China (Lyon)9
In a conversation last evening with Dr. S. T. Wang,10 who has recently returned from Nanking, he informed me that while there he was told by a Chinese official (whose name he did not disclose but who, he said, was one who knew what he was talking about) that Chiang Kai-shek’s escape from Sian was the result of Soviet intervention. I asked Dr. Wang if he could tell me how this intervention was actually effected: whether it came through Russian advisers to the Chinese Communists or through the Soviet Ambassador at Nanking. Dr. Wang said that he did not know but that the theory was that the word [Page 102] came, by whatever means, direct from Moscow, for the Russians realized that if anything happened to Chiang Kai-shek a chaos would result in China, of which the Japanese would take immediate advantage. On the other hand, they appreciated the fact that if Chiang Kai-shek were released as the result of Communist intervention he would be somewhat indebted to the Chinese Communists and would be forced to yield to some of their demands. This, in turn, would result in Sino-Soviet cooperation against Japan.