Office of the Historian

894A.00/12–2349

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth) to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] December 23, 1949.

Attached is a transcript,77 obtained from Mr. McDermott’s office, of a statement made by the President to the press on December 22, 1949 in which he said: Formosa is a part of Nationalist China and we still recognize the Nationalist Government as the government of China. The Counselor of the British Embassy called this morning to ask for an interpretation of the meaning of this statement. We are informing him that the President is in Missouri and that we do not know exactly what the President had in mind.

  1. Not printed.↩