811.244/367
The Vice Consul at Kweilin (Service) to the Ambassador in China (Gauss)21
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Consulate’s despatch No. 52, September 14, 1943, and its airgram No. A–25 of December 30, 11 a.m.,22 and to submit a report on the activities of the committee which was organized in September, 1943, by Chairman Huang Hsüchu of the Kwangsi Provincial Government to investigate into rumored cases of corrupt practices on the part of businessmen in Kwangsi in their business relations with the United States Army Services of Supply in Kweilin and other centers in this province.
Summary: Following its initial meeting on September 10, 1943, this committee remained moribund until December, 1943, when it was revived at the insistence of General Pai Chung-hsi, who had originally suggested to Chairman Huang that such a body should be created. As a result of discreet comments on the subject of corrupt practices here which were made by the commanding officer of the Services of Supply in this area to representatives of the local press at an off-the-record, background-information press conference on December 15, 1943, the provincial chairman received identical telegrams dated December 18, 1943, from President Chiang Kai-shek and Minister of War Ho Ying-ch’in demanding submission of the names of firms and banks withheld by Major R. B. Hodgson, commanding officer of the Services of Supply in this area, in describing cases of corruption cited in the press conference, and ordering the chairman to take steps immediately to punish the offenders. The first case which was turned over to the committee by Major Hodgson, to be handled exclusively by that committee, was settlement of the Army’s difficulties with regard to leasing of a building recently erected by the Y. M. C. A. This case has practically been settled by the committee at the time of preparation of this despatch, and the building should be available to the Army in a short time.
[Here follows detailed report.]
Respectfully yours,