127.6/358a
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck)96
A number of American nationals who have returned from China recently after having been in and around Chungking have affirmed that there is great confusion among and between various American official agencies operating in China, due to the fact that these agencies are operating independently of one another and are responsible only to the different authorities in Washington under which they function respectively. The view has been advanced by some of these observers that the personnel of some of these groups in China seem to be concerned much more for the interests of their own agency than for those of the United States; and the further view has been advanced by some that some system should be devised whereby all of this personnel will be brought under the supervision of some one controlling American authority in Chungking.97
- Addressed to the Assistant Secretary of State (Shaw), the Under Secretary of State (Stettinius), and the Secretary of State.↩
- Marginal notation by William E. DeCourcy, Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State (Shaw): “Such a system has already been devised and has been in effect for many months. WEDC”↩