Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1941, The Far East, Volume V

893.12/190

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Atcheson)²²

[Washington,] July 19, 1941.

Participants:	Dr. Paul M. Stewart, Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service,
	Dr. Victor H. Haas, U.S. Public Health Service (later),
	Mr. Atcheson.

Dr. Stewart telephoned Mr. Atcheson this morning. He stated that the Surgeon General had received a letter from the White House to the effect that the President had approved a loan for the construction of the proposed Burma Railway and desired that a unit of the Public Health Service proceed to China to take charge of malaria control and other medical matters in connection with the construction of the China section of the railway. He stated that the unit would consist of some 15 men who, it was planned, would proceed to China in September. He wished to send Dr. Haas to the Department to discuss the matter, especially the question whether the Public Health Service should not receive a request from the Chinese Government that the unit undertake the service in question.

Subsequently Dr. Haas called at the Department and presented to Mr. Atcheson the attached letter²³ marked for the attention of Mr. Hornbeck. (Mr. Hornbeck was engaged and was unable to see Dr. Haas.) Dr. Haas showed Mr. Atcheson a copy of a letter from Mr. Currie to the Surgeon General in regard to the President’s approval of the sending of the Public Health unit and mentioning that a request therefor had been received from the Chinese Government as evidenced by an attached copy of a letter^23a addressed to Mr. Currie by T. V. Soong.

Dr. Haas inquired whether the State Department could obtain from the Chinese Government a request for the service of the unit, whose expenses would be paid for out of lease-lend funds. Mr. Atcheson replied that the letter from Mr. Soong to Mr. Currie seemed to cover the matter; that it was his understanding that the Chinese Government had some time ago invested Mr. T. V. Soong with authority to act for it in lease-lend matters and with authority for delegation and substitution and that subsequently, upon the organization of China Defense Supplies, Incorporated, that organization, of which Mr. T. V. Soong was Chairman of the Board, had been invested with the authority granted Mr. Soong, such authority being conformable to that granted the British Purchasing Commission. Mr. Atcheson stated that notification of the granting of such authority had been conveyed to the Department by formal notes from the Chinese Ambassador and that copies of the notes had been transmitted to Mr. Harry Hopkins and the Secretary of the Treasury. Dr. Haas stated that the Surgeon General might wish written confirmation from the Department and would in any case send to the Department for its files copies of the letters from Mr. Currie to the Surgeon General and from Mr. Soong to Mr. Currie.²⁴

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22. Initialed by the Chief of the Division (Hamilton).
23. Not printed.
24. Not printed.
24. Neither printed. In an aide-mémoire communicated to the British Embassy on September 16 (893.12/189) the Department requested that the Government of Burma extend appropriate courtesies to the members of the United States Public Health Service commission proceeding to China, the British Embassy replying favorably in an aide-mémoire dated October 7 (893.12/194).