893.00/15064: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 21—8:13 a.m.]
1231. We were informed by good authority some time ago that Chiang Kai-shek had drawn up 21 regulations for the conduct of Chinese; that among them was one to the effect that Chinese associating too much with foreigners be put under surveillance as a first step; that General Chiang instructed Dr. Wang Chung-hui, one time Foreign Minister and now Secretary General, National Defense Council, to have the regulations circulated to certain officials and to see that they were enforced; but that Wang had successfully argued against their enforcement, especially the regulation relating to association with foreigners.
In an airgram dated July 12 the Consul at Kweilin93 indicates that he has positive information of the Chinese Government in June having issued instructions to officials in Kwangtung and Kwangsi and that in future only Chinese specially trained and qualified would be authorized to treat with foreigners and that those not specially designated who continued to associate with foreigners would be placed under surveillance. Ringwalt states: “In the preamble to the instruction it was pointed out that foreign military and civilian officials were arriving in China [in] vastly increasing numbers, and the view was expressed that, provided no precautionary steps were taken, the foreigners might be given false and misleading information and might thus be unable to obtain a true picture of conditions in China. Local Chinese critical of the administration in Chungking profess to be convinced that the Chinese have fears above all that the American public may become aware of the true state of affairs in China, and that American public opinion in respect of China may undergo a severe action from wholehearted and uncritical admiration and sympathy to apathy and cynicism. Whatever may have been the purpose of the instruction issued by the Executive Yuan, the results in Kwangsi have not been entirely happy. The more timid of the officials who might be in possession of accurate knowledge and be able to be of great assistance to this Consulate in preparing its reports are now out of town or ill whenever a member of the consular staff attempts to visit them, and the more brazen, fortified by the presumption that they will be protected in case they get into trouble, are inclined to retail to all who will listen every rumor, true or false, which may tend to place the Chinese Government in a bad light. Accurate, unbiased information is becoming increasingly difficult to acquire.”
[Page 77]The Embassy is inquiring of the Consulate whether it has, actually, positive information in the premises. Meanwhile, it is pertinent to comment that the report that the Generalissimo has drawn up regulations of such nature is in itself a somewhat ominous indication of a trend that seems to be increasingly followed by reactionary leaders in China. (See Embassy’s 999, June 23, 9 a.m., in regard to censorship; 995, June 22, 4 p.m.,94 in regard to the Generalissimo’s book China’s Destiny; and despatch no. 1355, July 17,94 on the subject of the police surveillance of foreigners at Sian which are unhappily reminiscent of traditional Jap police methods.)
There appears to be little open surveillance of foreigners at Chungking. Occasionally foreigners are stopped on the streets by police agents and asked to identify themselves and we are informed that General Tai Li has agents among the servants of the various diplomatic missions, including ours, to keep a check on visitors and to pick up what information may be garnered from conversations and waste baskets. At the time of the report of the drawing up by the Generalissimo of his 21 regulations, a Chinese organization which had arranged a tea party for the foreign correspondents here suddenly canceled its invitations.
Whether or not such regulations have been issued, we have been aware for some time that our Chinese friends (especially those below the highest brackets of rank) are far less given to frank discussion of China’s international, political and economic problems than formerly and that anything in the nature of criticism of the Chinese Government or its leaders is rarely heard except from a very few of the higher personages such as Dr. Sun Fo who, as the son of Sun Yat Sen, seems to feel that he can afford occasionally in a mild way to speak his mind. Another liberal, Sun Yat Sen’s widow, is also not always backward in speaking in private, somewhat frankly on some subjects to her friends, but she is cautious and is apparently under some forms of restraint. Mme. Sun has told me, for example, that she has wanted to go to Lanchow for the summer but that she was afraid that “permission” would not be given; and she so far continues to remain in Chungking. In the course of a conversation, Dr. Wang Chung-hui asked me what I thought of China upon my return after 4 years, and when I mentioned in the course of my reply that I was somewhat surprised and a little disturbed at the seemingly increasing trends toward Fascist practices he said with some confusion that some minor things were necessary in wartime and hastily changed the subject.
We shall expect in due course to report further to the Department on developments in this general trend.