645C.116/7
The Consul at Rangoon (Brady) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 5.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s instruction of March 24, 1941,49 transmitting a copy of a letter dated March 12, 1941, and an enclosure thereto, from the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, concerning the desire of that Society that shipments of certain types of medical and educational supplies made to its representatives in India and Burma be exempted from import control restrictive measures and prohibitions in view of the fact that they are financed by American funds. The Department instructed me to ascertain from the appropriate local authorities what exemptions might be made with respect to importations by all American missionary organizations in Burma of supplies of the character stated, and it pointed out that the list of articles submitted by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society as an enclosure to its letter might be regarded as illustrative and not as a complete list of the articles the Society desired to import.
[Page 205]In reply I have to report that on the receipt of the Department’s instruction I personally interviewed the Controller and the Deputy Controller of Supplies in Burma in regard to the question of exempting from control restrictions the types of medical and educational supplies shipped to American missions and mission schools in Burma by missionary organizations in the United States, and financed entirely by American funds, and later I confirmed the statements made to them in a letter to the Controller of Supplies, to which I attached a copy of the list submitted by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, as illustrative of the types of materials that have been shipped to Burma. Under date of May 5, 1941, I received a letter from the Deputy Controller of Supplies enclosing an order which he informed me was being issued by the Import Trade Controller, and concerning which he said:
“It is hoped that this order will enable free supplies of medical and educational requisites to be continued without hindrance and I am to suggest that you will be so good as to request the American Baptist Mission Society in Rangoon to communicate with the Import Trade Controller on this matter.”
The order enclosed with the Deputy Controller’s letter reads as follows:
“The American Baptist Mission Press are hereby permitted to import without license until further notice the undernoted articles of United States of America origin, provided they certify on the bill of entry that the articles, including cost of freight, duty and shipping charges, are being supplied as free gifts by the Baptist church in the United States of America for free distribution to American Baptist Missions in Burma.”
As the order refers only to the American Baptist organization and specifies only the articles listed by it as illustrative of the types of materials shipped to Burma, I again took up with the Deputy Controller the question of the exemption applying to shipments made by other American missionary organizations to their missions in Burma, and to materials of the types mentioned which might not be found in the list submitted, and he has assured me that the exemption granted will apply to any shipments of the same character made by other American missionary organizations having missions in Burma, and that medical and educational supplies furnished as free gifts for free distribution will not be arbitrarily restricted to those included in the list in question.
The American Baptist Mission Press, which is the organization in Burma which receives and distributes supplies shipped from the United States by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, is in possession of a copy of the order issued by the Import Trade [Page 206] Controller, and the Acting Mission Treasurer and Attorney has been informed of the assurance given by the Deputy Controller of Supplies with respect to supplies.
Respectfully yours,