740.00119 Control (Korea)/9–2347
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas (Saltzman)
[Washington,] September 23, 1947.
| Participants: | Col. B. C. Limb, Chairman of the “Korean Commission” |
| Mr. Robert T. Oliver | |
| Mr. Saltzman, Assistant Secretary of State | |
| Mr. Penfield, FE |
Colonel Limb and Mr. Oliver called on Mr. Saltzman by appointment. They expressed great pleasure over the reference of Korea to the General Assembly and conveyed to Mr. Saltzman the gratitude of the “Korean people”. They then proceeded to raise the following matters:
- (1)
- They referred to the passage of an election law by the Interim Legislature some months ago, said they could not understand why General Hodge has delayed appointing an election commission (which would be the first step toward holding elections), and strongly urged that no time be lost in expediting the holding of an election in South Korea. I was noncommittal in my comments on this subject.
- (2)
- As an argument for early elections, Messrs. Limb and Oliver described at some length the undesirable situation affecting former Japanese-owned property, which they said constitutes 90% of the productive facilities of South Korea. All of this property is held in trust by the military government which operates it as trustee for a future Korean Government. As a result, no one is willing to make basic policy decisions on the conduct and operation of the property and due to this cause alone, they intimated, Korean production is but a fraction of its pre-war volume. I asked Messrs. Limb and Oliver one or two questions on this matter and promised to look into it further.
- (3)
- Messrs. Limb and Oliver next asked whether an exchange rate could not be fixed for Korean won. They said that various Korean groups wished to send representatives abroad and that many Korean students wanted to study in American universities but that these very desirable activities were greatly restricted because it is impossible to change Korean currency into US dollars. They suggested that it might be possible to arrange some remittance procedure through the military government, even if the fixing of a general commercial exchange rate was impractical. It was agreed that Mr. Oliver would discuss this matter further with Mr. Hilliard.18
- (4)
- Finally, Colonel Limb explained that he and Miss Louisa Yim had been appointed representatives of the Korean people by the National Representative Assembly which, although unofficial, is representative of all Korean political factions except the Communists. He asked my assistance in arranging for some sort of official or semiofficial status in the UN for him and Miss Yim. I explained that in as much as their credentials came from an unofficial body, it would be very difficult to try to give them an official status and that, furthermore, it was our feeling that the problem now being in the hands of the UN, it would be inappropriate for the US to take the initiative in attempting to arrange for the hearing of Korean witnesses. I added that the UN would undoubtedly want to take Korean views into consideration but that it might, for instance, wish to send a committee out to Korea to get its information on the spot. Messrs. Limb and Oliver appeared to appreciate our position in this matter.
Charles E. Saltzman
- Charles C. Hilliard, assistant for financial policy in General Saltzman’s office.↩