Office of the Historian

693.9431/6–949: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Tientsin (Smyth)85

Washington, July 6, 1949—5 p. m.

174. SCAP has been authorized approve (Deptel 121 May 27 and urtel 396 June 786) sale 1300 metric tons 4 mm copper wire to A. C. Henning and Company and Bryner and Company subject contracts approved by SCAP. Not known here as yet whether these contracts have finally been closed.

Request you keep in touch with firms in Tientsin and report arrival goods and ultimate destination and end-use if ascertainable. You should not betray knowledge that sale this copper to North China by Japan has been approved, or that it was referred to Washington for approval.

For your information, end-use information obtained by SCAP direct indicates wire to be used communications along Tientsin–Pukow railway. Request you and Peiping keep Department currently informed state of telecommunications North China, with appropriate indication rehabilitation and extensions.

Acheson
  1. Repeated to the Consulate General at Peiping as No. 415, and to the Political Adviser in Japan as No. 313.↩
  2. Neither printed.↩