Office of the Historian

893.24/5–3045: Telegram

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Hurley)

Washington, June 12, 1945—5 p.m.

897. At meeting of representatives of the Department of State and other interested agencies85 it was unanimously agreed (ReEmbs 880, May 30) that this Government should not seek a reverse lend-lease agreement with China at the present time. This question has been raised and discussed periodically for almost three years. Continued insistence of Chinese Government on a Yuan-Dollar rate of exchange out of line with purchasing power of the Yuan, plus the danger of a decrease in supplies procured under a reverse lend-lease mechanism (as compared with procurement by direct purchase by U. S. Army) makes it not only ill-advised for U. S. to set up formal reverse lend-lease operations, but also contrary to our own interests.

Grew
  1. War Department, Foreign Economic Administration, and Treasury Department.↩