894.24/1546
Memorandum by the Adviser on Political Relations (Hornbeck) to the Secretary of State
[Washington,] June 12, 1941.
[Tentative]98
Mr. Secretary: I have been having compiled certain figures—from Department of Commerce statistics. Certain showings are of interest, as follows:
- 1.
- During the years 1938–40 the total U.S. exports to China amounted to $168,289,000; to Japan $699,050,000. This indicates that during the three full years of the Japanese-Chinese hostilities this country supplied to Japan approximately four times as much goods as we supplied to China. In the same period U.S. exports of petroleum and petroleum products to Japan amounted to at least $151,076,000 [the statistics do not account for certain special categories of petroleum products].98a This indicates that during the period under [Page 661] reference the amount of petroleum and petroleum products that we supplied to Japan was almost equal to the total amount of all products that we supplied to China.
- 2.
- In the year 1940 total U.S. exports to China amounted to $77,956,000; to Great Britain (United Kingdom alone) $1,009,600,000. This indicates that during this one full year of Japanese-Chinese hostilities and German-British war, we supplied to Great Britain (the United Kingdom) approximately thirteen times as much goods as we supplied to China. During the months January-March 1941, total U.S. exports to China amounted to $19,988,000; to Great Britain (United Kingdom) $289,393,000. This indicates that during those three months we supplied to Great Britain (United Kingdom) approximately fourteen times the amount of goods that we supplied to China.
- 3.
- News items this morning are to the effect that more than $4,000,000,000 have already been allocated under the Lease-Lend Act.
So far as the undersigned is aware, goods to the amount of $45,000,000 have been allocated to China.
The logical inference from this is that at the present moment the score stands at somewhere between 98 and 100 units for other countries, principally the British Empire and particularly the United Kingdom, to each one unit for China.
S[tanley] K. H[ornbeck]