894A.00/12–3049
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of Chinese Affairs (Sprouse)
Mr. Ford90 called at his request this afternoon and said that he and Mr. Graves felt it inevitable that the Foreign Office would request the Embassy to inquire of the Department regarding the story appearing in the American press regarding the JCS recommendation for U.S. [Page 468] military advisers and assistance for Formosa. He asked whether there was any information that I could give him at this time to enable them to give the Foreign Office some indication of the Department’s attitude on this question. Emphasizing that what I was telling him was solely for the confidential information of the Foreign Office, I said that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had proposed a program of military assistance, including military advisers, for Formosa but that no decision had been reached in this regard. I told him that there was nothing I could say at this time beyond the foregoing.
- J. F. Ford, First Secretary of the British Embassy.↩