893.50 Recovery/11–2548

The Chinese Ambassador (Koo) to the Secretary of State

No. 218

Dear Mr. Secretary: I have requested your office for an appointment to call on you in order to discuss the situation in my country. Pending your designation of the time for my call, I enclose herewith a Memorandum for your perusal, which I wish to take up for discussion with you in the course of my visit.

Yours sincerely,

V. K. Wellington Koo
[Enclosure]

The Chinese Ambassador (Koo) to the Secretary of State

Memorandum

urgent supplies under the 7-army-and-3-reorganized division program and for the chinese air force

1. On account of the exigency in China, the Chinese Government requests that the United States Government would take urgent steps to complete the delivery of the weapons and ammunition under the 7-Army-and-3-Reorganized Division Program. This program was worked out in Nanking between the Chinese National Defense Ministry and the United States representatives and consists essentially of the following:

124,383 rifles
8,104 automatic rifles
1,566 machine guns
8,920 sub-machine guns
720 81mm. mortars
3,260 60mm. mortars
252 37mm. guns
252 75mm. howitzers
317,864,500 rounds of cartridges
1,836,000 rounds of mortar shells
166,800 rounds of 37mm. gun and 75mm. howitzer shells.

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2. Of this program about 50% have been or are being shipped from the United States to China, with the exception of a small portion dispatched from the Western Pacific.

3. The total cost of the above program was jointly computed last September in Nanking by the Chinese and United States representatives to amount to U. S. $37,783,386.68 on the basis of the 1945 standard list prices. This sum was transferred to the United States Department of the Army toward the end of September out of the $125 million special China aid fund for the specific purpose of covering the entire program. According to the latest computation of the Department of the Army, however, the total cost of fulfilling this program would require $74,987,810.00, a sum nearly double the total of the original estimate made in Nanking. For this reason, the Department of the Army is understood to be unable to provide for the remainder of the program which consists of about one-third of rifle cartridges and all the trench mortars, 37mm. guns, 75mm. howitzers and their ammunition, unless additional funds are transferred to the Department.

4. It is to be noted, however, that of the $125 million under grants a total of $118.3 million has already been paid out to cover the release from the United States Government stocks and from other sources of a wide variety of urgently needed military supplies, including, besides the above program, such items as aviation gasoline, army and navy motor fuels, army tanks, trucks, truck tires and parts, aircraft and parts, repairs and supplies for naval vessels, signal equipment, army medical supplies, and essential raw materials for the Chinese arsenals. There is not enough money left from the special aid fund to pay for the balance of the program if the prices for the principal items are calculated on a replacement basis. It is therefore earnestly requested that the United States Government would consider and decide to fix the cost of the whole program on the basis of the 1945 standard list prices and authorize the Army Department to continue urgent action toward comleting the delivery of the remaining items of the program.

5. Owing to the special role of the Chinese Air Force in the current campaign, its aircraft have been put to excessive use and its stock of aerial bombs has been greatly diminished. It is earnestly requested that the United States Government would make available to the Chinese Government at the earliest possible date the following aircraft and bombs, with the question of payment to be subsequently determined:

(a) Aircraft:

A–26 attack horn bars 73
PB–4Y navy bombers 24

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(b) Aerial bombs (about 5,189 tons):

Bomb, G. P. 250–lb AN–M57 10,000
Bomb, G. P. 100–lb AN–M30 20,000
Bomb, semiarmor-piercing, 500–lb AN–M58 5,000
Fragmentation bomb cluster, 500–lb M–26 2,000
Fragmentation bomb cluster, 100–lb M1A1 5,000
Fragmentation bomb, 260–lb AN–M81 5,000
Igniters, M14 or M16 6,000

6. The Chinese Government will also greatly appreciate it if further delivery of the P–47N aircraft, in addition to 51 planes already turned over under Contract No. W–ANL (CH) 1575 (July 15, 1948) with OFLC can be expedited.