893.00/12–2247: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:44 p.m.]
2435. Believing that useful purpose might be served were I to issue a statement at the time Secretary presents to Congressional [Page 1235] Committee program of aid for China, I have drafted such statement which follows. If proposed context statement meets with Department’s approval, I should appreciate early advice in order that Chinese translation may be prepared.
“A Message to the People of China.
From Mr. Marshall’s statement to Congress you now know something of the extent to which the people of the U. S. are prepared to go to assist the people of China. May I, therefore, take this opportunity to attempt to interpret to you the purposes controlling American policy toward China, and the problems involved. I do this from the standpoint of one who was born and has spent most of his life in your country and who is as deeply concerned over its welfare as any of you.
Fortunately the Government and people of the U. S. desire for China precisely what all truly patriotic Chinese themselves are struggling to achieve: its freedom and independence, internal peace and prosperity, the establishment of a genuinely modernized and democratic government. We Americans desire all of this but nothing more. We have no imperialistic designs. We seek no cultural penetration, no commercial exploitation, no political control. The best reply to malicious or misinformed charges to the contrary is the long record of all our dealings with China and the experience of those Chinese who have had the closest associations with us.
Our problem has been how to help the common people who have been the chief sufferers from the devastating internal conflict which has continued since V–J day. What the common people need is peace and productive activity under a government that cares for their welfare.
More specifically the problem is how [to] benefit the common people and to protect them alike from the extreme reactionary or selfish elements and from the extreme radicals with their uncompromising ideology and their brutally destructive revolutionary tactics. Both of these are highly organized. Both place their partisan or their individual interests above those of the suffering people.
We Americans believe thoroughly in democracy and we are convinced it will work in China if given a fair chance and sufficient time. Negatively, a democratic government guarantees freedom from forcible interference in the daily pursuits of the people and freedom from fear. Positively, it fosters conditions under which the more intelligent and progressive leaders can educate and in other ways assist the ordinary people to appreciate the duties and the rights of citizens in the democratic way of life and to apply constitutional procedures in exercising these under rule of law rather than under caprice of individuals.
As has always been true in Chinese history, the masses will follow educated leaders in whose moral character they have confidence. By adapting this ancient democratic Chinese process to modern constitutional procedures, the corrupt or incompetent elements in the present regional, provincial and local governments can be gradually eliminated and replaced by those whom the people freely choose to administer public affairs for the public good.
Personally from my long association with Chinese students I have confidence in their patriotic idealism. They, whether having already [Page 1236] graduated and occupying responsible positions in Government, in education, in business, or any other walks of life, or whether still in school, should be the ones to lead in this latest form of patriotic, public-spirited effort. By their public-spirited and unselfish example, they should be able to surmount those at the other extreme who are so fanatically devoted to their party, so intolerant of all other political faiths, so utterly ruthless in the methods they employ, that they are willing to destroy public and private property and inflict upon the helpless people all the horrors of rapine and war in the attainment of their own arbitrary objectives.
We Americans, under the leadership of Mr. Marshall, did our utmost to assist toward the establishment in China of a coalition government in which Communist Party would be fully represented and have the fullest opportunity for the peaceful advocacy of its principles. Our efforts failed. We would still like to see in China a government representative of all the people. At the moment this appears impossible. Nevertheless, with the traditional friendship between the American and Chinese peoples, and given our belief that the economic well-being of the Chinese people will redound to the benefit of the world, we were led inevitably to continued assistance to the Chinese people through the National Government; that Government which, under the leadership of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, fought so valiantly as our ally against Japanese aggression.
The main task, however, rests upon the Chinese people, not upon the American people. No amount of American material assistance nor any number of skilled American technical advisers can alone accomplish what is required to bring political stability and economic recovery to China. The major effort must be Chinese and there must be a sincere and deep-seated determination to put selfishness aside and strive unceasingly for the common good.
First in importance is to understand clearly what the issues are. For there is much confusion as to terms. Freedom and democracy, for instance, are now being used with wholly different meanings. There can be no intellectual freedom in a totalitarian system where those who think for themselves succumb to fear, are indoctrinated, or are promptly liquidated. Democracy—as the word itself indicates—is government not only for but by the people. In this truly democratic sense the people must, however, continuously assert their will to prevent misuse of power by those in office. This is at once the strength and weakness of democracy. It requires, therefore, freedom of debate and publication, free access to news objectively reported. In a totalitarian system propaganda has been scientifically developed as a weapon dependent for its effects upon unrestrained vituperation and incessant repetition. There is need under present conditions for careful thought and investigation to avoid being misled by plausible and passionately asserted untruths.
China today is faced with insidious dangers which will require the united effort of all public-spirited citizens to overcome. The constitutional rights of full and free publicity, of legal procedure in arrests and trials, of untrammeled elections, must all be insisted on. Public opinion should be aroused and made articulate in resistance [Page 1237] alike against maladministration by Government officials and subversive agitations or armed violence by all others. Wherever the central government is sufficiently in control, this ought to result in better local government and in support of the troops by the populace in order to secure protection against armed depredation. This calls for organization, clear-sighted vision, a high degree of courage and grim determination. But with such cooperation from the freedom-loving patriots of China, the American people stand ready to offer their assistance through the National Government in the hope that that Government will become increasingly worthy of your loyal support and that all elements of the population will eventually join in a constructive evolutionary process that will bring unity and peaceful progress to the entire nation.”