Office of the Historian

893.50 Recovery/3–2249: Telegram

The Minister-Counselor of Embassy in China (Clark) to the Secretary of State

Canton, March 22, 1949—7 p. m.
[Received March 23—1:57 a. m.]

Cantel 160. For ECA for Griffin.88 Your ECANan 487,89 reDeptel 344 [to] Nanking, repeated Shanghai 485, Canton 49. Foreign Office agreeable negotiate amendment ECA bilateral agreement postponing special account date from April 3 to December 31, 1949. Am tentatively suggesting following note to Foreign Office. May I have your comments?

“Your Excellency: Under instructions of my Government I have the honor to invite Your Excellency’s attention to Article V, paragraph 7, of the bilateral agreement covering economic aid to China [Page 633] which requires that the unencumbered balance remaining in the special account on April 3, 1949, be disposed of as agreed between the Governments of the United States and China.

In view of existing situation, my Government proposes that the date mentioned in Article V, paragraph 7, be changed from April 3 to December 31, 1949.

If the Chinese Government is agreeable to this proposal, this note and your reply indication such approval will be deemed to constitute amendment to the bilateral agreement.”

Sent Shanghai 101, repeated Nanking 140, Department.

Clark
  1. Robert A. Griffin, Deputy Chief of the ECA China Mission.↩
  2. Copy of ECA telegram not found in Department of State files.↩