894A.24/12–849
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
| Participants: | Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador |
| The Secretary | |
| Mr. W. Walton Butterworth, Assistant Secretary, FE |
The British Ambassador called this morning at my request and I explained to him that I wished to discuss with him the question of recognition of the Chinese Communist regime. He said he was glad that I had sent for him because he also had two or three matters which he wished to raise, particularly, the question of Formosa and the discussions at the Ceylon Conference regarding a possible Japanese Peace Treaty.
By agreement, we began with Formosa. Sir Oliver Franks said there were two aspects of that question of concern to his Government. In the first place, they were concerned about the further shipment of military supplies from this country to Formosa and, in particular, such weapons as medium and heavy tanks and aircraft since it was their considered view that through defections Formosa would sooner rather than later pass into the hands of the Chinese Communists who might well at some stage use such materiel and weapons against Hong Kong. I summarized for the British Ambassador the status of shipment under the $125 million grants as set forth in the attached documents69 and in this connection called his attention to the possibility that Sherman tanks and Staghound armored cars might have been purchased or were in the process of being purchased by the Chinese in the U.K. for repair in this country and onward shipment. I pointed out the implications both foreign and domestic of our arbitrarily cutting off remaining shipments to Formosa which would amount to less than $8 million (as of November 1) of the $125 million. The fact was that through these previous shipments and through shipments from the Mainland to Formosa there was such a wealth of materiel on that Island that any such action on our part would be of insignificant practical value. I did agree, however, to look into the question of medium and heavy tanks since the British Ambassador had represented that the British military in Hong Kong had not now in their possession anti-tank weapons that could deal with other than light tanks and in view of the undesirability of diverting to Hong Kong such weapons. I expressed the view that I thought it would be possible if export licenses had not already been issued to deal with these two categories. Sir Oliver Franks vouchsafed that the figure on aircraft indicated in the [Page 443] memorandum which Mr. Graves presented on December 6 was incorrect and he seemed to agree that so numerous were the aircraft already on Formosa that such additions did not constitute an important aggravation of the problem.
The British Ambassador said that in the second place he wished to inquire whether our attitude toward Formosa had undergone a change since Mr. Bevin’s conversations in Washington. I told him that the President had approved the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs that Formosa was not of sufficient strategic importance to make it desirable for the U.S. Government to employ force to prevent the Island falling under the control of the Chinese Communists though we were seeking by political and economic means to do everything feasible to prevent that. To this end, we had recently attempted to disabuse the Generalissimo of any misconception he might have had in this respect and to exhort him to take the necessary action to consolidate the position since all the ingredients for success were available on the Island.
[For next section regarding question of recognition, see page 219.]