Office of the Historian

893.24/4–1846: Telegram

Brigadier General Bernhard A. Johnson to Mr. John K. Howard 13

[Shanghai,] 18 April 1946.

28795. The Chinese have agreed in principle to an overall purchase on the basis of an agreed percentage of depreciated cost, one main proviso in addition being that 70 per cent or more of the surplus are immediately or in the near future needed by Government Ministries [Page 1036] or are saleable in the Chinese market. The Chinese are in the process of making a detailed study of surplus and excess items. We need at once excess lists from all services from Okinawa, Japan, and other stockpiles, covering Army and Air Force supplies. Such excess lists must include item, description, location, condition, amount and price of each item. Please contact Lt. Col. Schafbuch14 of General Styer’s staff and see if he can personally bring to Shanghai at once the data necessary. If possible the lists he brings should include also excess lists from Cebu, Batangas and Leyte.

The Chinese propose that they be allowed to set up with their own personnel on Okinawa a complete reconditioning plant for sorting, grading and reconditioning surpluses they buy so that the surpluses loaded for China are in good shape and can go immediately into the channels of trade. Can you get an okay on this from General Styer’s headquarters. Colonel Craig15 on Okinawa tentatively approved such a plan last week.

  1. Central Field Commissioner, Pacific and China, OFLC, Manila.↩
  2. Lt. Col. Donald V. Schafbuch, attached to the staff of Lt. Gen. Wilhelm D. Styer, Commanding General, U. S. Army Forces, Western Pacific.↩
  3. Col. William D. Craig, Commander, Okinawa Base Command.↩