894A.00–R/8–2851
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Merchant)
Subject: Aid Programs for Formosa
| Participants: | Minister Tan—Chinese Embassy |
| General Yu Ta-wei, Chinese Embassy1 | |
| FE—Mr. Merchant |
General Yu, who has just returned from Formosa to take charge at the Chinese Embassy of all American aid matters, called on me [Page 1794] today at his request. After the usual exchange of greetings and the amenities, I told the General that I was delighted that he had accepted this position and that I wanted to assure him the complete cooperation of the Department and this Bureau in assisting him in any feasible way. I went on to say that I wished to talk frankly to him as an old friend on the general subject of our aid. I said that he was no doubt familiar with the aide-mémoire which our Chargé had delivered to the Gimo on the subject of effective supervision. General Yu said that he was completely familiar with this and also with the Chinese reply. I said that the latter we accepted as an expression of the desire of the National Government to cooperate fully with our Embassy, our MAAG and the ECA Mission. I said that the general order of our combined programs requested for fiscal 1952 was in the neighborhood of $300 million, that this on a per capita basis was the equivalent of between $12 and $15 billion for the mainland and must be by far the largest program of aid on a per capita basis to any country in the world. I said that we were totally serious in our intent to see that every penny was properly and effectively used and that we looked to his Government for complete and full cooperation in this regard. I told him that his Government had many sincere friends in Congress and our Government but it also had many individuals who were aware that our aid in the past had not always been effectively used and that we had a duty to our taxpayers who were assuming so heavy a burden for the entire free world to see that our contributions were not misused. General Yu expressed himself as being in complete agreement and said that he would use all his influence with his Government to assure effective cooperation between us on Formosa.
- Special Assistant to the Ambassador.↩