811B.01/640
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of War (Stimson)
My Dear Mr. Secretary: The receipt is acknowledged of your Department’s letter of February 20, 1944,7 in which you state that the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with the approval of the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy, have designated the War Department as the agency to plan for the administration of civil affairs in the Philippines during the initial military period, and that it is desirable to coordinate the activities of civilian agencies engaged in planning and making preparation for the return of United States forces to the Philippines with the plans to that end of the military authorities. You propose that an ad hoc committee be formed composed of representatives of the Secretaries of State, War, Navy and Interior, respectively, and of the Foreign Economic Administration and you request, if the Department of State approves of the proposal, that a representative thereof be appointed.
I approve of the formation of an ad hoc committee as above outlined and have appointed as this Department’s representative Mr. James C. Dunn, Director of the Office of European Affairs, with Mr. Frank P. Lockhart, Chief of the Division of Philippine Affairs, as alternate.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩