711.93114A/51: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in Switzerland (Harrison)
1011. American Interests—China. Paragraph 9 of Department’s 1202 of February 14, 1942, as amended,27 is hereby amended to reclassify China under Class VIII, for which basic maximum monthly payment is $110. Department trusts this will alleviate situation until foreign exchange question is clarified.
As stated in its 274 of January 30, 194228 Department desires that financial assistance extended to American nationals shall be limited to the minimum amount necessary for ordinary subsistence and essential extraordinary needs, and that the scale of assistance in no case shall be such as to enable the recipients to enjoy a higher standard of living than that to which they would ordinarily be accustomed.
Department approves any practicable procedure for providing gifts in kind, foodstuffs, and money to American nationals whether interned or uninterned, through Intercross or otherwise, within limits of maximum established for occupied China, and desires effective action to ameliorate situation in camps and immediate resumption of assistance to non-interned American nationals either directly or through Intercross.
As principal needs of interned nationals appear to be met by assistance in kind, pocket money payments might be suspended until a more [Page 1025] satisfactory conversion rate, or at least a greatly reduced one, is obtained.
Request Swiss to inform you when payments to uninterned American nationals are resumed and to keep you currently informed on general financial assistance situation in occupied China; report to Department on an urgent basis.
[For a proposal by the United States to the Japanese Government for the shipment of relief supplies and the carriage of mail to Allied nationals held by Japan and Japanese nationals in Allied custody, see telegram 1072, March 30, to Bern, page 1085.]
- Amended version transmitted to American Diplomatic and Consular Officers as Foreign Service Serial No. 109, January 22, 1944; not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. i, p. 259.↩