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further than they had. The Ambassador had,
however, received a personal message from
Chiang Kai-shek for me expressing the hope that
H.M. Government would continue to bear China's
case in mind. I said that, while I had nothing
to add to-day to what Sir George Mounsey had
said last week, I would ask His Excellency to
inform the Generalissimo that the situation in
Europe made it impossible for us to commit
ourselves to a definite answer at present, but
H. M. Government would certainly keep the Chinese
proposals very much in mind. We were, indeed,
not at all unmindful of what was happening in
China, but what could be done was really a
question of method, opportunity and tactics.
The Generalissimo would appreciate that what
happened here inevitably reacted on the situation
in the Far East, and we hoped that our efforts to
ensure peace in Europe might have beneficial
repercussions in China in just the same way as
the activities of the Chinese armies and peoples
had a reaction on the position in Europe. I
went on to refer to President Roosevelt's
message and to the transfer of the United States
fleet to the Pacific. It was not for me, I
said, to comment on what the President, in his
wisdom, elected to do, but the Chinese
Government would be alive to the significance
of what he had done and to the indication which
it afforded that we were all working on
parallel lines.
3.
His Excellency thanked me and said he
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