893.248/231
Memorandum by the Appointed Minister to Australia (Johnson)89 to the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hamilton)
Mr. Hamilton: At Hong Kong I met and had a talk with Mr. Sharp of the China National Aviation Corporation in the course of which he told me that a sum of money had been granted under the Lease-Lend Act to enable the Chinese Government to purchase transport planes to augment existing passenger and plane express services in China. Mr. Sharp told me that the Eurasia Company, which is a German-sponsored aviation company operating in China in competition with the China National Aviation Corporation, a company sponsored by American interests, had applied for a share of this money and that it was his understanding that the application of the Eurasia Company was being favorably considered. Now Mr. Sharp contends and I agree with him that under present conditions it seems hardly right that monies which we are appropriating for the assistance of the Chinese should be used to assist a company that has been a German organization from the beginning and which has from the beginning been operating in such a way as to compete, and that sometimes unfairly, with an American-sponsored enterprize. The China National Aviation Corporation is a corporation that Americans can be very proud of. The planes used are American planes. The aviators are American aviators. They are training Chinese aviators and they have a record of performance under bad weather conditions and under threat of attack from Japanese pursuits and military agents that is most enviable. I would be sorry to see this American-sponsored company penalized and hampered in any way.
I am filing this memorandum for the purpose of calling the attention of the Department to a situation which seems peculiar to American operators in the field and I must confess that it seems ludicrous to me [Page 659] at a time when we can hardly expect any consideration of a similar kind from German or Japanese sources.90