893.51/2–2546: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in China
407. Personal for General Marshall. In the light of your recent advice to the President of your proposal to return to Washington for a short visit this month,90 it seems to me that we should not commence negotiations for a major loan to China by the Eximbank until after your return to the United States. (Reference your Embtel 361, dated 25 February 1946.) Your presence in Washington will provide opportunity for a more satisfactory discussion of the position and actions of the Chinese Government in the fields referred to in Deptel 2057, dated 24 December 1945,91 and Deptel 85, dated 14 January, and Deptel 103, dated 17 January, than would be possible through cable correspondence. It would also be possible, while you are here, to discuss the desirable relationship between negotiations for a major loan and negotiations for an over-all settlement of such matters as lend-lease advances, surplus property disposal, and yuan advances.
In accordance with your recommendation in Embtel 155, dated 25 January 1946, it has been planned that negotiations in connection with [Page 958] the over-all settlement and the extension of a major credit to China would be conducted in Washington. However, in view of the way in which your mission has progressed, it seems inevitable that consideration will have to be given to a good many aspects of these questions, at least in the initial stages of negotiations, by you after your return to Chungking.
It has occurred to me that it would be helpful if upon your return to China you could take with you a small staff of three or four persons familiar with the Washington situation in such fields as surplus property disposal, lend-lease procedures and precedence, and Eximbank policies. This staff would probably be required only for a month or two, during the time when the basic principles to govern the negotiations would be determined. It is during that first period that I have thought this additional assistance might be most helpful to you. If you concur and will advise me, I will arrange to have such a staff selected and made available to return to China with you.
I think you should know that the Secretary of the Treasury, most of the other members of the NAC and the principal members of their staffs will be in Savannah, Georgia beginning March 8 for the first meetings of the International Monetary Fund and Bank. These persons, on their return to Washington about March 20, will be available for loan and settlement discussions with you.
- See telegram No. 251, February 26, vol. ix, p. 444.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1945, vol. vii, p. 1194.↩