Office of the Historian

893.51/1–1446: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in China

Washington, January 14, 1946—8 p.m.

85. For Adler4 from Secretary of the Treasury.5

For your information the following resolutions were adopted by the National Advisory Council on January 8, 1946:

1.
Chinese Request for $560 million Export-Import Bank Credit.

“The National Advisory Council does not recognize any commitment with regard to the Chinese Government request for a $560 million Export–Import Bank credit as the first portion of a 3-year program totaling approximately $2 billion.”

2.
Financial Assistance to China.
  • “a) A major program of financial assistance to China should be postponed until such time as political and economic developments provide a more adequate basis for decision.
  • “b) In accordance with the recommendation of General Marshall, a credit of $30 to $50 million at long term should be extended by the Eximbank to cover procurement in the United States of such urgently needed transportation and telecommunications equipment as may not be available as surplus.
  • “c) When and if political and economic developments in China make it appropriate to aid that country through the granting of major credits, the Eximbank should authorize utilization of such a credit only on a project-by-project basis.
  • “d) When General Marshall deems negotiations desirable, the United States will negotiate with China simultaneously on war settlements, including settlement of United States Army and Navy obligations to China, the sale of United States surplus property in China,6 and the settlement of lend-lease.7 The United States negotiators shall be guided in such negotiations by the principle that the Chinese Government should agree to offset Chinese obligations on account of lend-lease and the purchase of surplus property against the United States Army and Navy obligations.”

[Vinson]
Acheson
  1. Solomon Adler, Treasury representative in China.↩
  2. Fred M. Vinson.↩
  3. For correspondence on this subject, see pp. 1033 ff.↩
  4. For correspondence on this subject, see pp. 724 ff.↩