711.00111 Armament Control/976
Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Office of Arms and Mumitions Control (Yost)
Mr. Lao, First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy, called this morning to make inquiry in regard to certain matters of procedure concerning the issuance of export licenses and to repeat once more his Government’s concern over our publication of statistics of arms exported from this country. I showed Mr. Lao the draft of the press release covering export statistics for the month of June, in which month China stood second on the list. I informed Mr. Lao that the Department had been contemplating for some time the possibility of publishing these statistics every three months instead of every month and that I felt that it was very likely that this would be the last monthly press release which would be issued. Mr. Lao expressed the belief that this change would be highly agreeable to his Government, but nevertheless suggested that a complete cessation of publication might be even more agreeable.