Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1936, The Far East, Volume IV

711.00111 Armament Control/1010

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Arms and Munitions Control (Green)

[Washington,] August 18, 1936.

After consultation with Mr. Hornbeck,⁴⁰ I called the Chinese Ambassador by telephone at his summer residence at Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, last evening. I told him that after careful consideration, it had been decided that we could not properly at this time cease publishing the monthly summaries of export licenses issued for arms, ammunition and implements of war. I said that for various reasons we had not found it possible to comply with the wishes of his Government in this matter. Among those reasons I mentioned the possibility that should we cease publishing the monthly statistics at this particular time, our action might possibly be construed as motivated by a desire to prevent shipments to Spain from becoming known. I told the Ambassador that export licenses had been issued in July covering proposed shipments to China to the value of only $660,924.40, whereas export licenses had been issued to cover proposed shipments to Netherlands Indies to the value of $1,288,027.51.

The Ambassador asked when the statistics for July would be published. I told him that they would probably be published today. He expressed his regret that the Department considered it necessary to continue the publication of monthly statistics, but he added that he recognized that, in view of the present situation in Spain, it might be unwise to discontinue publication at this time. He thanked me for communicating with him in advance of publication and for giving him the information in regard to the value of proposed shipments to China, saying that, in view of the fact that the proposed shipments to China were greatly exceeded by the proposed shipments to Netherlands Indies, he did not believe that the publication of the July statistics would result in any unfavorable publicity.

I told the Ambassador that the question of substituting at a later date quarterly publication for monthly publication was still under consideration.⁴¹

J[oseph] C. G[reen]

40. Stanley K. Hornbeck, Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs.
41. On October 23 the Chinese Ambassador, under instruction, again requested cessation of publication of license statistics; but the Department found it necessary to adhere to the issue of monthly summaries (711.00111 Regis. Lic/268).