893.50 Recovery/4–849
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs (Sprouse)
During a call this afternoon Dr. Tan77 asked if the Department could obtain information with regard to the status of the program being undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Supply for the procurement of certain materials for China from funds allocated under the $125 million grants. He explained that these funds, totalling approximately $6 million, had been transferred last November to the Federal Bureau of Supply in accordance with arrangements between the Chinese and the Department of the Army. He continued that the Federal Bureau of Supply had on several occasions informed the Chinese [Page 513] Embassy that they could not proceed with the signing of contracts for supplies of desired materials because the Department of Commerce had not yet given its approval of the necessary allocations. Dr. Tan said that he would appreciate my looking into the matter to see what could be done to facilitate the carrying out of this part of the program.
I told Dr. Tan that we had been in touch with the Department of Commerce on this subject and that I would again look into the matter and let him know as soon as possible the result.
- Dr. Tan Shao-hwa, Minister of the Chinese Embassy.↩