893.50 Recovery/8–348: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 3—7:38 a.m.]
1424. For Department, ECA and Agriculture. ReEmbtel 1411, August 2,15 repeated Shanghai 682. Following is text of statement to be issued by Ambassador on occasion of signing and exchanging notes on August 5 providing for establishment joint Sino-American Commission on Rural Reconstruction:
“It is my sincere hope that students of Chinese social and economic problems will consider this day to be a milestone of progress toward sound improvement of conditions in the rural areas of this country. The notes exchanged today between His Excellency Dr. Wang Shih-chieh and myself provide for the establishment of a Sino-American Commission on Rural Reconstruction in China. Establishment of this Commission, in the work of which I shall take a deep and personal interest, is made in recognition of the importance of reconstruction in the rural areas to the welfare of the Chinese people as a whole, in recognition of the obvious fact that such reconstruction should have in its purpose the improvement of economic, social and cultural conditions in these areas. I am sure that the report of the establishment of this Commission will be received with considerable interest in the United States. The terms of reference for the Commission, contained in the Agreement embodied in the notes exchanged today, are sufficiently broad to permit the Commission to undertake a highly significant program in the field of rural reconstruction. I am specially gratified with the establishment of the Commission because it represents another chapter in the long record of close collaboration between China and the United States in this field, one of the most recent instances of which was the joint China-United States Agricultural Mission in 1946. That mission’s findings and recommendations are, I understand, to be used in large part as a basis for the work of the Commission which is about to be established.”
Sent Department 1424, repeated Shanghai 689.
- Not printed.↩