102.78/8–1645: Telegram
The Ambassador in China ( Hurley ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4 p.m.]
1367. For Wheeler, Agriculture, from Dawson. The Embassy did not know until after despatch of Embassy telegram 1338, August 13, 8 a.m., that technical agricultural collaboration between U. S. and China had progressed beyond [to] the stage that it was considered advisable to send a mission of specialists from the U. S. to make survey and recommendation. We now find that a plan for collaboration involving expenditure by the U. S. Government of $5,000,000 plus over the next 10 years has been the subject of discussion over a period of several months between Chinese representatives in Washington and Department of Agriculture, and between Dawson and Chinese officials here. Correspondence between Dawson and Wheeler on this subject has been on the basis of personal letters and, therefore, had not come to the attention of Embassy officials (Department of Agriculture can furnish you with plan formally agreed upon in the discussions referred to and which will soon be submitted for official approval).
We fully concur that agricultural improvement is a basic consideration in any plan for the economic development of China but we assume that a program of this size will be considered only in relation to the total over-all U. S. economic assistance to China for which no plan has yet been made. [Dawson.]