893.50 Recovery/5–649
The Director of the China Program of the Economic Cooperation Administration (Cleveland) to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)
Dear Mr. Butterworth: In October, 1948, the J. G. White Engineering Corporation was employed by the Council for United States Aid of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China, under a contract financed by the Economic Cooperation Administration, to provide technical assistance to the ECA–CUSA Joint Committee on Reconstruction [Page 329] and Replacement in connection with industrial projects under the China Aid Program.
The initial phase of the industrial program consisting of pre-project engineering surveys has now been completed. It is reasonably clear that the program will not be able to proceed on the mainland of China. Therefore, it makes sense to continue the services of the J. G. White Engineering Corporation only if there is a prospect that an industrial program will be activated on the island of Taiwan.
ECA is willing to continue to finance the contract with J. G. White as long as there is any prospect that their services will be of value, but we feel that we have an obligation to take steps to have the contract terminated, as provided for by its terms, when it no longer serves a useful purpose.
Under the circumstances, I would appreciate it if you could indicate your views as to the future prospects of a program for Taiwan that might involve the engineering services of this Corporation.
Sincerely yours,
- Received in the Department on May 6.↩