President Ma Ying-jeou said Thursday the diaries of the country's two late presidents -- Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo -- should be treated as national property in terms of their contents. 'Legally, the diaries are the private assets of the Chiang family, but judging from their contents and from a historical and cultural perspective, they should be regarded as public property,' Ma said in response to a media inquiry after attending an international seminar on the Chiang Kai-shek diaries and history of the Republic of China. Ma's remarks came two days after a row broke out among family members of the Chiang clan over the rights to handle the diaries, which have been kept at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in San Francisco since 2005. A granddaughter of Chiang Ching-kuo issued a statement Nov. 30 challenging the right of another relative to sign over the diaries to the U.S. research institute. Ma said he earnestly hopes that the late presidents' family members can settle their dispute soon so that the invaluable diaries can be published for academic study and public scrutiny. According to Ma, the dispute arose five years ago and mediatory efforts have so far failed to achieve any positive results. The 55-volume diaries of Chiang Kai-shek span 1917 through 1972, a period that included a war of resistance against Japanese invasion, a civil war with the Chinese Communists and Chiang's exile to Taiwan and rule over the island. Chiang Ching-kuo's diaries began in 1939 and ended in 1979, a period during which he succeeded his father, serving as premier and then president of the ROC. 'All those diaries are national treasures. Few political leaders in the world have so patiently and consistently written diaries for such a long time. The diaries should be preserved for academic study, ' Ma said. In a statement issued through the law firm Baker & Mckenzie, Chiang You-mei, the daughter of Chiang Ching-kuo's deceased eldest son, said that Chiang Fang Chih-yi, widow of Chiang Ching-kuo's third son, had acted without the consent of the other legal inheritors of the late presidents' estate when she entrusted the diaries to the Hoover Institution Jan. 10, 2005. 'I will not remain silent on the issue any longer, and will take legal action if necessary,' Chiang You-mei stated. She claimed that Chiang Fang Chih-yi had disregarded the rights of the other inheritors, whom she said, 'do not recognize and cannot accept her actions. Regarding publication of the diaries, Chiang You-mei said most of the inheritors are not opposed to the move, but that the matter of Chiang Fang Chih-yi's unauthorized action must first be resolved in order to avoid any unnecessary trouble in the future. With Chiang Fang Chih-yi's agreement, the Institute of Modern History under Taiwan's highest research body Academia Sinica originally planned to published part of the diaries of Chiang Kai-shek Thursday. But the plan has been suspended after the inheritance row came into spotlight. The institute said it will wait until the dispute is resolved to publish the diaries. 