Evening star., 1951-06-05

accompanied by State Depart
--AP Photo.
talked about great deal, ! thinl
it is important to clear it up, ant
there is the preparation of tn,
instructions which were issued t,
Gen. Marshall. -.
At the end of November, 1945
Secretary Byrnes and Gen. Mar
shall met This was after Gen
Marshall had been asked to go. tt
China.
Secretary Byrnes read him &
memorandum suggesting the out.
line of instructions for him. Gen
Marshall did not approve of it.
Gen. Marshall said that he woulc
wish to try his own hand. assisted
by some of his associates, in draft
ing the instructions.
This he did; and a draft wa!
prepared by him, in conjunction
with four generals who were work.
ing very closely with Gen. Mar
shall. This was submitted to Sec
retary Byrnes.
On the 9th of December, Secre'
tary Byrnes made his suggestion.
to Gen. MarShall-that is, fugges.
tions of changes or alterations o.
additions to the draft prepared b!
Gen. Marshall.
Gen. Marshall's draft, with
Secretary Byrnes' suggestions, wa
discussed at a meeting in Secre
tary Byrnes' Office on Sunda!
morning, December 9, 1945. b.
Secretary Byrnes. Gen. Marshall
Mr.. Carter Vincent, Gen. Hull ant
myself. I was then Undersecretar,
Iof State.
Marshall Approved Plans.
Those of us went over the in
Istructions. Gen. Marshall ap
proved the suggestions made b,
Secretary Byrnes, and we thel
had a completely agreed draft.
In the course of that meetin,
the outline of a letter from tn,
President to Gen. Marshall wa
discussed and directions were Civ
en- for its preparation.
J. There was also approved at th'
meeting memorandum from Sec
retary Byrnes to the Secretary O
War. requesting certain help il
connection with the removal O
the Japanese and the movemen
Of Chinese armies into the nortl
and laying down certain reStric
tions on these movements.
They were taken up by Secre,
tary Byrnes with the President
who went over them; and the.
were put in final shape, un,
changed from tie agreements O
December 9.
The President then had a meet.
ing with Gen. Marshall, at which
I was present-there were three O.
us at that meeting, the President
Gen. Marshall and myself-ant
at that point the signed letter ane
the Enclosures were handed tt
Gen. Marshall.
1t was ascertained by the Pres
ident at that meeting that thest
papers were unanimously approved
and agreeable to all concerned
and to himself.
Now that is the account of tn,
preparation of these instructions
All the papers concerned arr
printed in the white book, will
one exception. The press release
which I mentioned a moment ago
which was given out on the 15tl
of Misunderstanding in tn,
press release was in Gen. Mar
shall's instructions. In othel
words. the press release was ;
verbatim statement of what wa
in the structions to Gen. Mar
shall, except that certain para
graphs in the instructions wer'
omitted from, the press release.
One Omission Explained.
One of those omissions had tt
do with what is printed in tn,
white paper and in the memo
randum from Secretary Byrnes Il
the Secretary of War. That wa
the discretion and authority giver
to Gen. Marshall in not moving
Nationalist government troop
into areas in which there wa
fighting until he thought tina
that was a wise thing to do.
That was not to be stated ane
released because obviously j
wouldn't work if it were.
Another omission, two othe,
omissions had to do with thing.
which We would do If the Chinese
government asked us to do it
Obviously you do not print in thu
newspapers that you will do some.
thing if somebody else asks vol
to. You leave it to the other per
son to ask you to do that if the.
wish.
Gen. Marshall arrived in Chins
at the very end of December
l945. By February, 1916, thret
major agreements had beer
reached between the Chinese gov.
ernment and the Communists
These agreements grew out of tn,
earlier agreements of October II