893.796/275: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 25—3:05 a.m.]
608. F. B. Lynch, recent adviser to the Ministry of Finance, informed Weil84 November 23 that the first flight on the Chungking–Hami Air Line has been scheduled tentatively for December 4; that Junkers planes owned by Eurasia but operated by the Ministry of Communications and piloted by Chinese will fly to Hami via Sian and Lanchow; and that Russian-built DC3’s will be used between Hami and Alma Alta, where the line will presumably connect with a line to Moscow. Inauguration of the Hami–Alma Alta Line has not yet been announced.
Lynch is being sent to the northwest to investigate movements of cargo under Sino-Russian barter agreements. It appears that the Chinese Government suspects that Chinese products—particularly wool—which might be sent to Russia are finding their way into Japanese hands.
Repeated to Peiping, Shanghai.
- T. Eliot Weil, Third Secretary of Embassy in China.↩