Office of the Historian

893.24/7–1948

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs (Sprouse) to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)

[Washington,] July 19, 1948.

Dr. Tan Shao-hwa, Chinese Minister, telephoned today and referred to the Department’s memorandum of April 21,12 enclosing a list of ammunition and other military items available under surplus arrangements for transfer to the Chinese Government. He pointed out that this was the same as the list enclosed with the Department’s memorandum of March 4, except for a few items. Minister Tan stated that on page 6 of the list forwarded with the Department’s memorandum of April 21 certain airplane engines had been enumerated as being available for the 8⅓ Group Program. He said that these engines were said by OFLC to be in the Pacific islands and that, therefore, negotiations must be negotiated with OFLC representatives at Shanghai. Minister Tan concluded with the request that OFLC representatives at Shanghai be instructed to enter into negotiations for the sale of these engines.

I telephoned Captain Sullinger of the OFLC and communicated the foregoing to him with a request for any available information he might have on the subject. Captain Sullinger said that OFLC had received a letter, dated July 14 from a representative of the Chinese Air Force, enclosing two photostatic copies of the list which the Department had forwarded to the Chinese Embassy on April 21. He said that 1,107 airplane engines had been listed on page 6 of this document. Captain Sullinger continued that his investigations to date indicated that ½ of these engines had already been delivered to the Chinese Government under the 8⅓ Group Program. He further stated that 375 engines for P–51s and P–47s had been turned over to the Chinese under the Hogan project (Calcutta stockpile) as part of the 8⅓ Group Program. It was his belief that perhaps all of these engines had already been turned over to the Chinese. He said that he would inform me further when he had completed his investigation of this matter.

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