893.154/389½
The Department of State to the British Embassy 7
Memorandum
Careful consideration has been given by the Department to the proposals contained in the British Embassy’s memorandum of September 23, 1941 in regard to the dispatch of Lease-Lend supplies to China via Burma.
As the British Embassy is aware, the demands upon this Government for supply of Lease-Lend aid to countries resisting armed attack is so extensive and so varied, and the facilities for delivery are so limited, that one of the major problems confronting the concerned American authorities has been that of coordinating the available supply of goods with the availability of transportation facilities. The shortage of shipping in the Pacific has indeed been so acute that those authorities have had no option but to dispatch materials for China at irregular intervals when and as it has been possible to obtain shipping space therefor on vessels of varying capacities and speeds. Under the circumstances it will be readily realized that it is not possible at present to arrange for the shipment of goods from the United States to Burma in regular amounts and at regular intervals.
It may be added that the conditions which have delayed the forward movement of goods on the Chinese section of the Burma Road have been the subject of close attention by this Government as well as by the Chinese Government. American transportation experts have recently visited China for the purpose of studying transportation problems on the Burma Road and have made recommendations looking to the solution of those problems. As a result, steps are now being undertaken by General Chiang Kai-shek to reorganize the Burma Road transport system. It is accordingly to be hoped that within a short time marked improvements will have been effected and that as a result Lease-Lend supplies for China will move more rapidly over the Burma Road. In this connection it may be stated, for the British Embassy’s confidential information, that the Department is bringing to the attention of the American Ambassador at Chungking the considerations raised in the British Embassy’s memorandum and is requesting that the Ambassador take occasion, without mentioning that the British Embassy has suggested regulation of the shipment of Lease-Lend supplies transiting Burma, to emphasize to General Chiang Kai-shek that accomplishment of the hoped-for improvements [Page 735] in transportation over the Burma Road would seem to be of vital importance.8
The Department has taken note of the suggestion of the British Embassy that congestion at wharves in Rangoon might be lessened and use of shipping facilitated through the giving of advance notification to the representative in New York of the British Ministry of War Transport of the nature of the goods being shipped to Rangoon and the arrival dates. According to information recently received from Rangoon, there has been established there by the local authorities an official Transport Coordination Board headed by the former British Home Secretary of the Burma Government. It is understood that shipping, port, road, rail, and river interests are represented in the membership of the Board and that the Board will coordinate all transport activities in Burma in regard to the movement of both transit and domestic cargo. As there is no single organization or authority in the United States in a position to furnish the desired information, and as American shipping interests and China Defense Supplies, Incorporated, are represented at Rangoon, it is suggested that the new Transport Coordination Board at Rangoon is in the best position to obtain the information in question from the local representatives of the agencies and interests concerned, which agencies and interests we are confident would be glad to cooperate in every feasible way.
- Notation: “Concurred in by Mr. Currie.”↩
- In Department’s instruction No. 31, October 6, the Ambassador was authorized to mention also “to General Chiang that, according to estimates compiled by officials of this Government who have been studying this question, there are now at Rangoon over 79,000 tons of materials for China, including some 33,000 tons of ‘dead storage’ (described as heavy equipment from Haiphong and Hong Kong and as steel rails), over 12,000 tons of reserve stocks of various kinds, over 22,000 tons of supplies in transit and some 12,000 tons of general supplies including several thousand bales of blankets which have been in storage for a very long period.”↩