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4 The measures followed in bringing at least a temporary halt to the fighting are well-known and are mostly recorded in the China White Paper. I might say in this connection that we found it very difficult in many cases, and usually very important cases, to get at the true facts. The two Chinese mem- bers of the teams were not only antagonistic, one to the other, but held to a very strict course of action which would avoid anything prejudicial to their side of the current issue. As a result, it fell more and more to the American representative and Chairman, and at times to me personally, to ferret out the true facts of a case or incident. For example, we had one situation in Shantung involving coal, a very important issue, where a large number of Nationalist troops were surrounded by a larger number of Communist troops. At the same time, farther to the West, we had almost an exactly similar situation, where a large number of Communist troops were surrounded by a larger number of Chinese Nationalist troops. The Communist representative on the Committee of Three with me was urging me to go personally to settle the western dilemma. The Nationalist representative was opposed to my doing so. On the other hand, the Nationalist representative was pressing me to go to the scene of the difficulty in Shantung, and the Communist member was strongly opposed to that action. This was frequently the case, though not so clearly demarked as in this particular inci- dent.

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    "ocrText": "4\nThe measures followed in bringing at least a temporary halt to the\nfighting are well-known and are mostly recorded in the China White Paper.\nI might say in this connection that we found it very difficult in many cases, and\nusually very important cases, to get at the true facts. The two Chinese mem-\nbers of the teams were not only antagonistic, one to the other, but held to a\nvery strict course of action which would avoid anything prejudicial to their side\nof the current issue. As a result, it fell more and more to the American\nrepresentative and Chairman, and at times to me personally, to ferret out the\ntrue facts of a case or incident.\nFor example, we had one situation in Shantung involving coal, a very\nimportant issue, where a large number of Nationalist troops were surrounded\nby a larger number of Communist troops. At the same time, farther to the\nWest, we had almost an exactly similar situation, where a large number of\nCommunist troops were surrounded by a larger number of Chinese Nationalist\ntroops. The Communist representative on the Committee of Three with me was\nurging me to go personally to settle the western dilemma. The Nationalist\nrepresentative was opposed to my doing so. On the other hand, the Nationalist\nrepresentative was pressing me to go to the scene of the difficulty in Shantung,\nand the Communist member was strongly opposed to that action. This was\nfrequently the case, though not so clearly demarked as in this particular inci-\ndent."
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