893.01811/137
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Edwin F. Stanton of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs8
On February 17, 1943 Mr. Yulin Hsi called on Mr. Hamilton and presented a letter of introduction from Ambassador Gauss. The Ambassador stated that Mr. Hsi, who for seven years was one of the Chinese members of the Shanghai Municipal Council, was proceeding to the United States on behalf of the Chinese Government to study municipal administration. Mr. Hamilton told Mr. Hsi that he would be happy to assist him in any way possible and Mr. Hamilton offered [Page 734] a number of suggestions as to persons who might give helpful suggestions.
Subsequently, Mr. Hsi, who had been introduced to Mr. Stanton by Mr. Hamilton, informed Mr. Stanton that he was a member of the National Defense Council of the National Government and that he had been “instructed by the Generalissimo” to proceed to the United States to make a detailed study of municipal administration in this country. Mr. Hsi said he planned to remain in Washington for two weeks and then to visit New York and other important cities in this country. He said he anticipated that this itinerary would take about three months and that he would then return to Washington to organize the material which he had acquired and would probably return to Chungking in about six months time. However, in this connection he added that Dr. T. V. Soong9 had told him when he called on him last Friday, February 26, that Dr. Soong thought Mr. Hsi should remain in the United States for a longer period in order to make a complete and exhaustive study of municipal administration.
According to Mr. Hsi, his first week in Washington was spent in the Library of Congress where he consulted books and publications of municipal administration and numerous reports from various municipalities in this country. Mr. Stanton arranged for Mr. Hsi to call on the commissioners of the District of Columbia Government and Mr. Hsi spent an entire week with the commissioners and the heads of various departments. He stated that he had learned much from his pleasant contacts with these officials.
It was gathered during the course of the conversation with Mr. Hsi that, upon his return to Chungking, he expects to have considerable to do with the drawing up of a new Municipal Charter for the city of Shanghai. Mr. Hsi is also interested in the problem of price control and hopes to have time to make at least a limited study of our price control measures in as much as the Generalissimo asked him to look into this matter while he was in this country.