893.24/4–1648
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs (Ringwalt)
Dr. Tan called by appointment at 5:00 p.m. to discuss the general problem of Chinese military requirements.
Dr. Tan stated that his Embassy had just received a communication from Nanking setting forth the urgent need of the Chinese armed services for 20,000,000 rounds of .30 caliber carbine ammunition for immediate delivery to China. He inquired to what extent this type’ of ammunition could be met from ammunition surplus to the needs of the United States armed forces. In this general connection he asked whether this Department was now able to give him the promised information in regard to availability of surplus ammunition from Hawaii and the Pacific.
I informed Dr. Tan that we had just received a detailed statement of availabilities of surplus ammunition from the sources mentioned but that unfortunately the Department of the Army had indicated that a section of the list should be treated as classified information. I said that we had requested the Department of the Army to supply us with an unclassified list which we could transmit in its entirety to the Chinese Embassy and that pending the receipt of this unclassified list I saw no reason why I could not indicate to him informally the nature of the ammunition which might be made available for transfer in substantial amounts. Dr. Tan agreed that the information which I was able to pass on to him in this manner coincided in general with information already obtained by him through FLC, and that it appeared that only about 500,000 rounds of .30 caliber ammunition could be made available from surplus.
Dr. Tan had inquired whether it would be possible to make a further survey to ascertain whether additional surplus ammunition could be-discovered. I stated that I would inquire of the concerned officers in [Page 57] the Department of the Army but that it was my impression that the list to be submitted would include all available surplus ammunition except that located in the Ryukyus. I said that I had learned from FLC sources that a representative of Bosey had made an informal inspection of the surplus ammunition on Okinawa and had discovered that a substantial portion of this ammunition was either unserviceable or of a type not used by the Chinese armies. It seems that this representative had requested authority to make a selection from this surplus rather than to accept it in its entirety on a where-is as-is basis. I suggested to Dr. Tan that in view of the nominal price at which this ammunition was to be offered, that is to say, one cent on a dollar, I doubted whether the Army or FLC would be willing to agree to the request of the representative of Bosey. I pointed out that the United States Army personnel on Okinawa had been so reduced that it would be quite impracticable for the Army authorities concerned to undertake to process this ammunition.
With respect to the seventeen C–46s which were being declared surplus by SCAP for transfer to China, I informed Dr. Tan that notwithstanding my previous statement to the contrary it had proven possible to have American pilots deliver these planes to Shanghai. I asked Dr. Tan to regard this concession on our part as entirely confidential.