893.24/2–1446: Telegram
Mr. Thomas B. McCabe to Brigadier General Bernhard A. Johnson, at Shanghai
47013. Re your 22655 and Com 7th Fleet 090522 to CNO proposal that ship repair equipment be transferred to Admiral Mar’s Dockyard in exchange for agreement for services, does not appear possible under existing law. However Navy and ourselves will continue to pursue matter in endeavor to obtain regulation which would permit such a transaction. Will keep you advised. If possible secure from Adm. Cooke his estimate of the annual dollar service the Kiangnan Dockyards might be expected to render the Navy. Also secure the [Page 1074] same estimate from Admiral Mar for annual dollar service to Navy, also to US commercials.83
- In telegram No. 170315, February 17, from Admiral Cooke to the Chief of Naval Operations, the Navy estimated it could utilize between $200,000 and $500,000 worth of such services annually. Admiral Mar was cited as believing he could furnish $500,000 worth of such services for the Navy annually “with some increase if contract labor employed” and as hoping he could exceed $100,000 worth of annual repairs for American commercial vessels.↩