893.48/1407½

President Roosevelt to the Secretary of State and to the Chairmm of the American National Red Gross (Grayson)

I realize the difficulty of adequate means for distributing relief to the Chinese civilian population but, at the same time, I think that from many points of view it would be right and proper for us to take a greater part in such relief work than we are doing today.

Would you be good enough to talk this over and let me have your views? I would be happy to give approval to any appeal by the Red Cross for funds for destitute Chinese civilians. The same thing applies to funds to be spent for medical aid.

I am confident that any such appeal would meet a very wide response, and I think we could raise $1,000,000 without any trouble at all. No question of giving Red Cross assistance to Japan arises because no Japanese civilians need medical treatment or relief of destitution.

F[ranklin] D. R[oosevelt]