893.154/474
Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Augustus S. Chase of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs
| Participants: | Lieutenant Colonel M. E. Sheahan, U. S. Army. |
| Mr. Ballantine. | |
| Mr. Chase. |
(It will be recalled that Sheahan in 1939 and 1940 headed an American commission which at the invitation of the Chinese Government toured China and made recommendations for the improvement of the Chinese transportation system. Since then he has been with General Stilwell’s command, working on transportation problems. He is understood to be a very capable officer whose opinions are of great value.)
Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan called in response to an invitation. The opportunity was taken to obtain information from him on a number of aspects of China’s transportation problems and related questions. His observations and views may be summarized as follows:
The practicable steps which it is vitally necessary to take to rebuild China’s broken-down transportation system continue to be those which Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan recommended in 1939. Road maintenance and improvement, and the rehabilitation of native means of transport (river junks, human carriers, et cetera), which can handle a very large volume of traffic, are especially important; and a more centralized control should be established to reduce graft and promote efficiency. Other necessary steps include the acquisition of more substantial trucks, and the repair of some 10,000 immobilized broken-down trucks (for which, Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan believes, there are fairly adequate supplies of spare parts already available in India and China).
[Page 105]The establishment of an American transportation advisory office at Chungking would help a great deal in forwarding the work of rehabilitating China’s transportation system provided that the Chinese would prove cooperative. Chinese have in fact intimated to Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan that his services as an adviser are desired, but his military duties would prevent his accepting such a position.
In any case it is most important to encourage the Chinese themselves to do everything possible to solve their transportation problems—and especially to repair and improve the road system in the region between Kunming and Japanese-occupied areas on which future military operations will probably depend to a large extent. Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan has the impression that the Ministry of Communications under Tseng Yang-fu is taking a step in the right direction by establishing a more centralized control over transportation. The Chinese, considering their handicaps, have not done so badly in the maintenance of transportation equipment. The heavy mortality of trucks has been due less to the inefficiency of Chinese mechanics than to the cheap construction of the trucks resulting from the fact that the Government, instead of purchasing finished American vehicles, purchased only skeleton chassis and completed the trucks with inferior Chinese technique and materials.
Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan estimates that, following the recapture of the Burma Road, it will take about three months to prepare the China section of the road for operation. Restoration of traffic on the Burma section will be more difficult in view of the greater destruction suffered by the railway and road in that area, but with the reconquest of northern Burma it will be possible to establish a direct route from Calcutta to the western end of the Chinese section which can be used in lieu of the route from Rangoon. Considerable use can be made of river transportation on the Brahmaputra. It is planned to put through a pipe line from Burma to Kunming, which will carry aviation gasoline. In the opinion of Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan, the psychological effects of the reopening of the Burma Road will benefit China more than the road’s actual transportation value.
With regard to the report that British experts are undertaking maintenance work on the Iran–U. S. S. R.–Sinkiang route, Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan feels that it would be preferable for Americans to handle this work, especially in view of the strong anti-British sentiment in the Iran area. The present volume of traffic over the Russian route is about 2,000 tons a month and it is hoped that this figure can be doubled. The possibilities of the Tibetan route are extremely limited.
In response to an inquiry as to the possibility of getting relief supplies into China, Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan said that, in view of [Page 106] the transportation bottleneck and of the necessity of according priority to military supplies, he feared that the delivery of relief supplies, despite its unquestionable urgency, would have to be deferred for a long period.
Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan, while heading his commission for the study of China’s transportation system in 1939 and 1940, experienced considerable difficulties as a result of the friction between the groups headed by Dr. H. H. Kung and Mr. T. V. Soong with which he had to deal, and he believes that any American who might be appointed as a transportation adviser will have to be very careful to avoid becoming involved in differences between these two groups.
Lieutenant Colonel Sheahan feels that relations between the Americans and the British in India have tended to improve somewhat. There has been a tendency on the part of some Americans to deal directly with the Indians rather than through the British. On the whole the British have been surprisingly tolerant of this practice.