693.0031 Tibet/5–1148
The Ambassador in China ( Stuart ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 24.]
Subject: Tibetan Trade Mission
The Ambassador has the honor to refer to the Embassy’s despatch No. 87 of February 24, 1948, and to enclose a copy of a memorandum of conversation8 between three members of the Tibetan Trade Mission and two officers of the Embassy. The Mission has been visiting Shanghai and Hangchow in recent weeks and has now just returned to Nanking to continue preparations for the proposed trip to Japan and the United States. The conversation with the Mission leaves no doubt that it intends to make such a trip, contrary to certain newspaper reports that this part of the Mission’s itinerary was to be cut out.
It is of interest to note that the type of travel documents which it should use is still a question which plagues the Mission. In accordance with the Department’s instructions (Department’s telegram No. 1573 dated December 26, 19479), the Embassy did not refuse to issue visas on the Tibetan travel documents carried by the Mission but attempted to induce the Mission first to obtain Chinese exit visas and then to approach the Embassy for entry visas.
- Not printed.↩
- Sent to the Chargé in India as telegram No. 812, Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. vii, p. 604.↩