Office of the Historian

893.24/1–3148

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)

[Washington,] March 2, 1948.

At my request the Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs telephoned Dr. Tan on March 1 and asked him to call upon me today.

I informed Dr. Tan that the Department of State had now received official confirmation from the Department of the Army of the preliminary estimates of ammunition available in Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa, and Hawaii which the Secretary had referred to in his testimony before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives on February 20.59 Now that the Army had officially notified the Department that it would declare this ammunition surplus to its needs the OFLC had been similarly informed. I gave Dr. Tan the main breakdown and in response to his request indicated that I would take steps to supply him with details which might not be wholly accurate regarding the types and quantities available in Saipan, Tinian, and Hawaii. As regards Okinawa I pointed out that the total named constituted merely a rough estimate.

I took this occasion to cast a fly over Dr. Tan in the matter of certain information contained in Mr. Bullitt’s60 testimony today before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House61 a good deal of which was clearly based on information obtained from the Chinese Embassy. I said to Dr. Tan that I had heard at lunch in the Metropolitan Club that Mr. Bullitt had vouchsafed the fact that the Chinese had not been officially informed of the information which I was now conveying to him and which Mr. Ringwalt had yesterday arranged this appointment for the purpose of conveying to the Chinese Embassy, and I wondered whether he could throw any light on how Mr. Bullitt came into possession of information regarding such negotiations between our two Governments. Dr. Tan was obviously somewhat at loss as to how to meet this query and from my knowledge of him I should say that he was not inclined to approve tactics of this kind. By way of reply he merely said that when Mr. Bullitt’s article [Page 28] had appeared in Life he had learned many things which he had not previously known himself.

I took this occasion also to call Dr. Tan’s attention to the fact that, although the Embassy had purchased houses and buildings from private individuals in accordance with the terms of the Surplus Property Agreement of August 30, 1946,62 it had not yet received the titles for the properties specified in the Annex to that agreement and other properties purchased which were in the ownership of a Chinese Government entity (Embtel 190, January 31, 10:00 a.m.63). I referred to the undertaking of the Chinese Government to make the requisite transfers “promptly”. I also pointed out that, although the delay was no doubt merely a technical oversight, it was causing embarrassment to the Office of Foreign Buildings in its dealings with the Appropriation Committees, and under existing statutes the Department was limited in the matter of repairs, et cetera, as regards properties the titles of which were not vested in the United States.

Before leaving Dr. Tan asked whether the Department would again look into the possibility of supplying the combat planes due under the 8⅓ Group Program from Pacific sources. He indicated that, although the Embassy had been informed that in response to a query from the Department General MacArthur had stated that no such planes were available as surplus in his theater, the Chinese authorities had informally learned from individual Army officers in the Department of the Army that in their opinion, if the authorities in Washington would be prepared to supply in due course more or less new planes from the United States to General MacArthur, he would be prepared to make available serviceable although somewhat used planes from his command. I said I would have his suggestion looked into.

  1. United States Foreign Policy for a Post-War Recovery Program: Hearings before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 80th Congress, 2d sess. (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1948), pt. 2, pp. 1545 ff.↩
  2. William G. Bullitt, former Ambassador in the Soviet Union and in France.↩
  3. United States Foreign Policy for a Post-War Recovery Program, pt. 2. pp. 1897 ff.↩
  4. Report to Congress on Foreign Surplus Disposal, October 1946, p. 40.↩
  5. Not printed.↩