800.796/6–2044
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
Dr. Chang came in to see me at his request. Anticipating the next session of the Chinese air conversations, he said that he had exchanged [Page 493] cables with Chungking. The Chinese Government was prepared to grant the aviation routes and landing rights we were asking in China. But since they were not prepared to ask reciprocal rights in the United States—not planning Chinese international aviation lines—the Generalissimo had asked instead American assistance in helping China build up her international [internal?] aviation system. On questioning, he told us their ideas of assistance. The Generalissimo wanted 300 DC–3’s and 200 DC–4 planes, to be delivered over a period of three years; and also wanted assistance in training Chinese technicians and operating personnel. I pointed out that the entire American internal aviation system before the war had required only about 340 planes. Dr. Chang said he understood that but thought there would be more use for planes after the war. He said that he was giving these figures to me personally since he did not wish to make them a matter of official representation. I gathered that he knew, just as well as I did, that they were fantastic in size.
I then said that I hoped that an attempt would not be made to tie together assistance to Chinese aviation lines as a quid pro quo for routes and landing rights. Clearly, we did not wish to be in the position of buying landing rights and routes all over the world. We thought of transportation as itself a world service.
I said that we were, of course, sympathetic to the idea of Chinese transport development, as he knew very well, and I would consult with my colleagues with a view to finding out the extent to which we could be of use.
Mr. Chang said that, to make things concrete, he had thought that we might turn over to China the surplus transport planes which might be in China at the close of the war—reconditioning them for Chinese use. He thought of this as a lend-lease transaction. The other planes might be turned over on a long-term credit basis. I said all this would have to await further examination. Meantime, I thought we should need the technical information as to the precise Chinese plans for developing their aviation before we could deal with the subject intelligently.
Dr. Chang pressed for an agreement in principle to the subject of assistance. I said that, in principle, of course, we wanted to assist, but that before anything could be said we had to find out exactly what the conditions and implications were. On the other hand, as he knew, this Government was endeavoring to be of all possible help to China in the reconstruction of its economy.