Book Description

Fifty Years in China THE MEMOIRS OF John Leighton Stuart MISSIONARY AND AMBASSADOR RANDOM HOUSE NEW YORK Ambassador Stuart visiting Ming Ling, the Imperial Tomb of Ming Dynasty, 1946. Courtesy LIFE Magazine. Copyright TIME. Inc. Lovingly dedicated to the memory of My Father, John Linton Stuart, My Mother, Mary Horton Stuart, and My Wife, Aline Rodd Stuart Contents Preface, ix Introduction, xi Foreword, 3 i Ancestry and Early Years, 9 2, College and Theological Seminary, 21 3 Back to China, 35 4 Yenching University A Dream that Came True, 49 5 Personal Experiences of Yenching Days, 82 6 Personalities on the Chinese Scene, 100 7 The Japanese Occupation and an Island of Terror, 1 26 8 Incarceration and Release, 137 9 Call to Diplomacy, 160 10 The Dream that Did Not Come True, 177 1 1 Mounting Perplexities, 2, 1 3 12 Behind the BamTboo Curtain, 239 13 To Washington and in Washington, 260 14 Reflections in Retirement, 288 15 The United States and China What Policy Now, 302 Appendix, 315 Index, 341 Illustrations Ambassador Stuart visiting Ming Ling, the Imperial Tomb of Ming Dynasty, 1946. Frontispiece President Chiang Kai-shek and Ambassador Stuart in confer ence at Kuling, summer resort, 1946. Facing page 108 General Marshall and Ambassador Stuart at Nanking, 1946. Facing page 109 President Stuart chatting with a group of newly enrolled stu dents by one of the imperial pillars on campus of Yenching University, 1946. Facing page 140 Ambassador Stuart conferring with Admiral Louis E. Den field, Commander of IL S, Pacific Fleet and Admiral S. S. Cook, in Nanking, 1946. Facing page 141 Mr. Chou En-lai, Chinese Communist leader now Premier and Foreign Minister conferring with Ambassador Stuartin the American Embassy grounds, 1946. Facing page 236 Ambassador Stuart in a sedan-chair ascending Kuling, summer resort, 1946, for a conference with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. F ac n g T a S e 2 37 A delegation of Kuling Elementary Girls School presenting flowers to Ambassador Stuart during an illness in 1946. Facing page 268 President Stuart in front of the Yenching University Admin istration Building in Peiping, 1946. Facing page 269 A Prefatory Note on John Leighton Stuart It is a great pleasure for me and a compliment to be permitted to introduce Dr. John Leighton Stuart. I met Dr. Stuart for the first time at Nanking, China, in the late Spring, as I recall, of 1946. He was returning from a lengthy visit to the United States, recuperating from his years of impris onment by the Japanese, We talked over the current situation, and I was so impressed by his reactions that, later on, I proposed to the Department of State that he be appointed Ambassador to China I was only an Ambassadorial Representative of the President. I took this action because of Dr. Stuarts fifty-odd years experience in China, and his character, his personality and his temperament. With Dr. Stuart beside me, I had more than fifty years of vast experience unprejudiced by personal involvements in Chinese partisanship. On his appointment, I found his advice and leading assistance of invaluable help to me. I doubt if there is anyone whose understanding of Chinese character, history, and political complications equals that of Dr, Stuart. His high standard of integrity made his opinions all the more important. It is the man, the character and the general range of his experi ence which appealed to me. GEORGE CATLETTMARSHALL Introduction John Leighton Stuart, who was born and brought up in Hang chow, China, where both his father and mother were leading missionaries, tells us that in his boyhood he always had an aversion for missionary life Even after his graduation from Hampden-Sydney College, he still confessed his lack of en thusiasm for missionary service. It is difficult to exaggerate the aversion I had developed against going to China as a missionary, . . ...