Office of the Historian

893.24/1–1048

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

[Washington,] January 20, 1948.

Mr. Graves14 of the British Embassy telephoned today to ask whether the Department had any comment to make on the note of January 10, regarding the proposed British sales of arms to the Chinese Government, which the British Ambassador15 left with Mr. Lovett.16

I reread the note and indicated that it was couched in terms which seemed to require no reply. I referred to the fact that the Department had announced in May last that it was issuing licenses for the export of ammunition to China and that on one or two occasions such licenses had been issued or promised, and that in the circumstances there seemed to be no useful comment that could be made.

I took this occasion to thank Mr. Graves for being so good as to keep us advised of the British Government’s intentions. Mr. Graves seemed satisfied with this.

  1. H. A. Graves, Counselor of the British Embassy.↩
  2. Lord Inverchapel.↩
  3. Robert A. Lovett, Under Secretary of State. In the memorandum of January 10, 1948, not printed, from the British Embassy, the statement was made that, because the United States had decided in June 1947 to resume the issue of export licenses for arms to China, and the Canadian Government had followed suit, the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ernest Bevin now considered it proper to modify the British policy of a complete embargo and to meet a specific request by China to supply some guns as armament for aircraft being purchased from Canada. Any further Chinese requests for war material, however, would be decided on merit (893.24/1–1048)↩