Office of the Historian

893.34/10–1547

Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs (Rice) to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)

[Washington,] October 21, 1947.

Subject: Transfer of Naval Vessels to China Under Public Law 512

Reference Mr. Ringwalt’s memorandum to you of October 17, 1947 on the above subject and notations which you placed thereon with respect to action to be taken in the premises.

As previous communication on this subject between Mr. Ringwalt and Captain Hummer, of the Office of the CNO, had been by telephone, I today telephoned him and stated that the Department of State has no objection to the sale to China of ammunition for equipping United States naval vessels being transferred under Public Law 512.

Captain Hummer thanked me for supplying this information and stated that a telegraphic instruction had been sent on October 20 to the Commander of Naval Forces, West Pacific, directing that he inform the Chinese that requests for ammunition for vessels to be transferred would be processed and filled as soon as possible but that we could not guarantee to deliver ammunition at the same time the [Page 980] ships are delivered. The instruction contained the further statement that the agreement with respect to the ammunition should be separate from that for transfer of the ships because of the fact that the Secretary of State may at any time, under Section Two of Executive Order 9843, withdraw his concurrence to the program.

It will be noted that the Navy would appear to have anticipated our concurrence in the transfer of ammunition for these vessels. I pointed this out to Captain Hummer who stated that the telegraphic instruction in question had been drafted in the light of the fact that transfer of naval vessels already accomplished under Public Law 512 had been accompanied by transfer of ammunition made with the authorization of the Secretary of State.

I assume that a written communicatiton to the Navy confirming my oral statement to Captain Hummer is not required. Should you feel otherwise please so indicate.72

E[dward] R[ice]
  1. No comment indicated.↩