Cable, Summary of Averell Harriman Meeting with T. V. Soong

PARAPHRASE OF NAVY CABLE # JULY 11, 1945. TOP SECRET

FROM HARRIMAN. PERSONAL AND TOP SECRET FOR THE PRESIDENT AND THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

Stalin received Soong for another talk tonight. Soong informed me that he has come to an understanding on all matters along the general lines previously reported except for some points as to the ports and railroads.

Generalissimo Stalin agreed, after long argument, that the guards should be Chinese and that there should be no rights to move Soviet troops in Manchuria. Any forces going to Port Arthur [Lüshunkou District, Dalian] would be moved by sea. The final point not agreed to regarding the railroads is control of the management. Stalin still insists on a majority of the directors which Soong has resisted. Soong's offer is for joint operation with equal participation in the management and the board.

Regarding the ports, Stalin still insists that the military zone under Russian control should include Dairen [Dalian] as well as Port Arthur, and that there should be a naval base within Dairen. Soong offers Port Arthur and the area south of Dairen as a military zone. Dairen, however, should be a free port under Chinese management with certain storage yards and docks leased to the Soviets, for their through shipments, on a commercial basis.

It was suggested by Soong to Stalin that he return to Chungking to consult the Generalissimo over the points still at issue. Stalin, however, said it was better to come to an agreement before he met with you at Berlin as he wished to decide with you the date of his entry into the war. Another meeting has therefore been arranged for tomorrow night. Soong intends to outline in detail the maximum concessions he is authorized to make along the above lines. If no agreement is reached he will return to Chungking to consult the Generalissimo and will give me to report to you the position of the negotiations – the points remaining at large and the matters on which agreement has been reached.

Mr. Soong asks me to tell you that he feels he has gone beyond the Yalta agreement, in order to meet Stalin's demands, in agreeing to recognize the independence of Outer Mongolia after the war and has fully met any reasonable interpretation of the Yalta agreement in his proposals regarding the ports and railroads. On the other hand, Stalin has offered him satisfactory conditions for the Treaty of Friendship and the civil affairs agreement during the military period in Manchuria; also assurances that he would withhold support from the Chinese Communist Party and from the insurgents in Sinkiang.