740.00119 PW/6–749
Memorandum by the Deputy Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Allison) to Mr. Robert R. West, Deputy to the Assistant Secretary of the Army
Subject: Delivery of Certain Japanese Reparations Facilities to Formosa
On May 31 the State and Army Departments advised SCAP (Tab A)1 of their view that in winding up the Advance Transfers Program of Japanese reparations no further deliveries should be made to the Chinese mainland, but that facilities “in process” for China at the time of termination of the Program should be made available for delivery to Formosa if the Chinese Mission in Tokyo indicated that the National Government so desired. The Mission informed SCAP on June 5 (Tab B) that the National Government did so desire. However, in making the facilities available for removal SCAP in an administrative ruling of June 7 (Tab C) withheld the Kure Thermal Electric Power Plant and the Kure Tower Crane, notwithstanding the facts that these facilities had been allocated to China before termination of the Advance Transfers Program and that the administrative ruling established the general principle that allocated facilities should be delivered to the claimant countries.
On June 28 the Department of State inquired through the Office of the Acting Political Adviser (Tab D) what the considerations underlying SCAP’s decision to retain the Kure facilities were. SCAP replied on July 7 (Tab E) that since only a small percentage of the Kure facilities had been dismantled and packed, and since the facilities were required for purposes of Japanese recovery, local decision had been made to retain them. This reply left unexplained, however, the facts that (1) SCAP had only a short time before allocated the facilities to China, indicating that he had not considered them necessary to Japanese recovery before termination of the Advance Transfers Program, and (2) the criterion of percentage of dismantling and packaging ran counter to the general principle announced by SCAP on June 7 that allocated facilities would be delivered.
It is suggested, in the light of approved U.S. policies with respect to Formosa, that General MacArthur be approached again to determine whether the Kure facilities might not be delivered to Formosa along with the other facilities allocated to China.
- Annexes not printed.↩