493.11/2108
The Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs ( Hamilton ) to Mr. Roger S. Greene 14
My Dear Mr. Greene: I am in receipt of your recent letter15 in which you inquire whether, in the opinion of this Department, the Trustees of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture have discretionary authority to contribute, from the remitted Boxer Indemnity funds administered by them, to the financial relief and repatriation of private Chinese students in the United States who have been deprived by the existing situation in China of their usual financial support.
I enclose herewith a copy of Executive Order No. 426816 authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to remit to the Board of Trustees of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture, certain Boxer Indemnity payments already made or to be made to the United States, “the remission of the payments to be for the purpose of further developing the educational and cultural activities of China.”
The above-quoted language of the Executive Order raises the question whether the authorization for the remission of the funds permits their use for general educational activities in the interests of China, or restricts their use to scientific educational activities in the sense of the resolution adopted in 1925 by the China Foundation and incorporated in the fourth Whereas clause of the Executive Order.
While it would seem that there is ground for support of the more liberal interpretation, due weight must be given in considering any question involving the provisions of the Executive Order of July 16, 1925, to the statements made in all of the Whereas clauses of the Order as well as to the statements contained in the last paragraphs of the Order. As you are aware, it has been the practice of the Department not to intervene, except in cases of absolute need therefor, in matters relating to the functioning of the Board of Trustees of the China Foundation and in this connection note has been taken of the statement contained in your letter that the Foundation has already reached the conclusion that such a grant as is under discussion would lie outside the scope of the program of the Foundation. The ultimate determination of the question which you raise would appear to require consultation by this Department with the Secretary of the Treasury. In view of the foregoing this Department, although it desires to be of all appropriate assistance to you in your consideration of a humanitarian problem, considers that it would be preferable for it to refrain [Page 578] from expressing any definite opinion on the question submitted in your letter.
Sincerely yours,
- Of Worcester, Mass.; trustee of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. i, p. 935.↩