893.248/202
The Consul at Rangoon (Brady) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 30.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that 66 American training planes for China are to be assembled in Rangoon, the British Government having approved a recommendation by the Governor of Burma that the required permission be granted. The planes consist of 36 North American and 30 Ryan trainers, and they will be assembled at the Rangoon airport by 90 Chinese workmen from the plant of the Central Aircraft Manufacturing Company at Loiwing, China. It is expected to have the work completed within the next three months.
The assembled planes will be flown from Rangoon to destinations in China by Chinese pilots. Use will be made of emergency landing fields between Rangoon and Lashio in making the flights.
The planes to be assembled in Rangoon, and which are now at this port, form part of 100 American trainers (50 North American and 50 Ryan) sold to the Chinese Government by Harvey Greenlaw, an American representing North American Aviation, Incorporated, and the China Airmotive Company, Federal Incorporated, at a reported price, c. i. f. San Pedro, California, of $2,300,000. The cost of the [Page 599] North American planes, which are advanced trainers, was given as $1,800,000, and that of the Ryan machines, as $500,000 (despatch no. 321, of June 24, 194097). Thirty-four of the 100 planes were shipped, several months ago, to the factory of the Central Aircraft Company at Loiwing, China, for assembly there, and several of the assembled planes were damaged when the factory was bombed by the Japanese on October 26, 1940.
British Action Possible Precedent.
Chinese interests hope that the British permission for the assembly of training planes in Rangoon will serve as a precedent for similar action in connection with future operations of this kind. They have particularly in mind the possibility of being able to assemble fighting planes here, in the event that present efforts to obtain such planes from the United States are successful.
[Here follows brief report of Japanese air raid at Yunnanyi, on the Burma Road about 200 miles from Kunming.]
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed↩