Office of the Historian

840.50 UNRRA/8–1645: Telegram

The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State

London, August 16, 1945—2 p.m.
[Received 5:30 p.m.]

8288. For Thorp, Vincent and Moffat from Clayton.

1.
Far Eastern Council Committee of UNRRA will probably meet early next week with either Gilpatric or myself in attendance. I assume that Soviets will be elected to membership at that time. Major point of discussion in view of prospective end of war in Pacific will be UNRRA program of operations and consideration of UK and Australian [Page 1016] insistence that Far Eastern Regional Office be organized along line of Regional Office in London.
2.
China definitely opposed to UNRRA FERO on ground that almost entire UNRRA effort will be concentrated in China as compared with several missions of equal stature operating in Europe. We expect agreement that Office of Director General Secretariat and activity of COFE (Committee for the Far East) will be established in some part of liberated China as soon as practicable but share Chinese view that FERO would lead to administrative difficulties and prestige problems with various countries in furnishing top personnel for it. We have thus far taken the line that question was primarily one for administration to solve. Jackson75 here and Hendrickson in Washington seem to be the only two UNRRA officials favoring UK plan. Neither of these officials has been thus far concerned in UNRRA Far Eastern planning.
3.
Advice from you is requested as to whether we should associate ourselves with Chinese insistence that no FERO be established or whether question should be postponed pending clarification of many relevant relief and supply policy questions when hostilities cease. We assume that you would agree with our tentative position that UK proposal for a FERO immediately should be resisted.

Sent to Department as 8288 repeated to Moscow as 295 and Chungking as 13. [Clayton.]

Winant
  1. Robert G. A. Jackson, Senior Deputy Director General of UNRRA.↩