893.24/11–1945
Memorandum by the Deputy Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Penfield) to Mr. Walter Brown, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State
General Wedemeyer cited as his authority for the transfer under Lend-Lease of transport planes to the Chinese to take Chinese troops [Page 639] to Manchuria, a telegram from the War Department of September 5 which quoted a policy approved by the President on military Lend-Lease,40 effective V–J Day, allowing the continuance of “assistance to Allied forces engaged against Japanese forces which have not surrendered”. The telegram also gave the following interpretation of this policy as applied to China:
“Your action on Japanese capitulation will be on the basis that military assistance will be continued for the present for the purpose of supporting Chinese military operations essential to the re-occupation by Central Government Forces of all areas in the China Theater now held by the Japanese, and the placing of Chinese occupation forces in Japan proper, Formosa, and Korea.”