Chungking Embassy Files—850 War Production Board
President Truman to President Chiang Kai-shek
My Dear Generalissimo: I have asked my Personal Representative and the Economic Advisor of your Government, Mr. Edwin A. Locke, Jr., to hand this letter to you on his arrival in Chungking, and to convey to you my personal greetings and assurances of warm esteem.
[Page 1355]Mr. Locke is prepared to discuss with you and members of your government the ways in which the industrial experience of the United States can best be utilized to aid the reconstruction and sound peacetime development of the Chinese economy. I have suggested to him that the situation now confronting your nation as a result of the acquisition of large industries in Manchuria and other liberated provinces of China may deserve especial attention.
At the same time, I have asked Mr. Locke to arrange for the early termination of the American Production Mission now in China.40 As you know, this Mission was established in 1944 as an emergency measure to provide assistance for Chinese war production. With the ending of the war, the Mission has, of course, fulfilled the purpose for which it was created. In arranging schedules of departure for the Mission’s personnel, Mr. Locke will work in closest collaboration with your government and will give every consideration to the requirements of China’s economy.
I have followed with the most sympathetic interest the efforts of China to increase her industrial production during the war, and currently to revive and expand her peacetime industries. I deeply feel that our nations have a great opportunity for economic cooperation, through which we can give substance to the aspirations of vast numbers of the world’s peoples for rising living standards.
With every good wish,
Sincerely,
- For documentation regarding sending of American Production Mission headed by Donald M. Nelson to China, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. vi, p. 247 ff.↩