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246 Officer to Department of External Affairs

Cablegram 88 NANKING, 28 February 1949, 4.18 p.m.

IMMEDIATE TOP SECRET

I called on the Minister for Foreign Affairs on Saturday
afternoon.

2. He asked me to tell Dr. Evatt that the Government had
appreciated greatly his suggestion for United Nations mediation.

They felt that they should pursue first their present efforts to
open negotiations with the Communists and if they succeeded in
this to prosecute them to a successful issue. Should they be faced
with a deadlock they would like to feel that they could turn to
Dr. Evatt's proposal. Wu Te Chin hopes he may be able to go to New
York for some part of the April Assembly and have an opportunity
to discuss matters with Dr. Evatt. (Please pass this paragraph to
Dr. Evatt if he has left Australia).

3. Wu seemed moderately optimistic about the peace negotiations.

He expressed the view that leading Ministers should have returned
to Nanking earlier and that he intended to spend much of his time
here in the future. He sought to remove any suspicion of friction
between Sun Fo and the Acting President but was guarded about
Sun's intention with regard to staying any time in Nanking. (Vice
Minister for Foreign Affairs had told me earlier in the day that
'it might be better if Sun paid instead short visit and left the
handling of the Legislative Yuan to Wu').

4. The president's peace mission returned to Nanking yesterday and
are 'moderately optimistic'.


[AA:A1838/2, 490/1, iii]
Last Updated: 11 September 2013
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