Memorandum of Conversation with East German Ambassador Fr. Everhartze

014.498/7

SECRET

Memorandum

Of visit of the ambassador of the German democratic republic, c. Fr. Everhartze

Today on 12 April 1957 the ambassador of the German Democratic Republic, Fr. Everhartze, agreed to visit me.  The visit lasted from 15:00 until 16:30, and took place in the presence of GDR embassy official Libermann.  The conversation was in German.

Comrade Everhartz informed me, based on a joint Chinese-Polish public declaration, that it was possible to speak with top officials in the Chinese MFA about their views on the recently concluded Chinese-Polish negotiations.  According to Everhartze the working out of the joint declaration was extremely difficult.  The difficulties pertain to 3 issues:

1. The leading role of the USSR in the socialist camp.  The Polish comrades do not want to offer a clear declaration of this idea and conclude that it would not help the domestic situation in Poland.
2. The counter-revolution in Hungary.  Again in view of public opinion in Poland the Polish comrades do not want to adopt the exact formulation of the Chinese party.
3. The VIII plenum of the Central committee of the Polish workers’ party.  The Polish comrades want to implement a formulation characterizing the VIII plenum as an unusual event in the course of Polish history, identifying a new path in the development of Marxism-Leninism.  The Chinese comrades only want to note in discussion that the VIII plenum was a memorable event from that time period and that the Polish situation in several regions has improved.

The Chinese comrades appreciate the progressive development of Chinese-Polish negotiations, which have taken place in the past months in Poland.  It is sufficient to compare the communiqué signed by Zhou Enlai at the beginning of this year in Warsaw with the communiqué signed in April in Beijing.

The main purpose of the visit of c. Everhartze was to find out some concrete information about the future visit of c. Zhou Enlai to Czechoslovakia.  He justified his request with reference to the fact that the German Democratic Republic has invited Zhou Enlai for an official visit.  C. Everhartze was informed that the time of the visit of c. Zhou Enlai to Czechoslovakia had still not been firmly negotiated, and depended on many details, but as soon as we are informed about the visit by the Chinese comrades we will inform all the people’s democracies.

In the next part of the conversation we provided c. Everhartze some information about Chinese-Soviet relations.  We have been informed that the Chinese comrades strongly rebuked the Soviet comrades for their manner of resolving the problem of the cult of personality this past year, and the concrete measures taken to criticize c. Stalin.  All of this led to the development of events that took place last year in Hungary and Poland.  Further, the Chinese comrades rebuked the Soviet comrades for not informing them ahead of time about Khrushchev’s report that was presented at the secret meeting at the 20^th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Regarding this c. Everhartz alleged that the Chinese comrades criticized the Soviet comrades for failing to provide information, but they themselves do this as well.  He gave as a concrete example several stages in the political life of the Chinese People’s Republic, where Mao Zedong delivered a report at a state conference but the Chinese party generally provided nothing or only a bit of information, and it went so far [out of hand] that the [East] German ambassador c. Gyptner complained about it to the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in the name of c. Walter Ulbricht.  He was told in response that Mao Zedong would be informed, but until today, more than a month later, he has not received a response.  It is necessary to take account of how the Chinese comrades conduct themselves in Berlin, as up until now regarding this problem they have not shown a readiness to provide precise responses.

In conclusion we discussed the last meeting of the CCP CC dedicated to the problem of improving efficiency and about the development of the situation in the German Democratic Republic and in West Germany.

Beijing, on 15 April 1957.

Recorded in two summaries,

MFA, CC Signed:  Bušniak