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’.
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[AA:A1838/2, 490/1, iii]