893.50 Recovery/7–1548
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
| Participants: | Mr. Chen Li-fu, Vice President of the Legislative Yuan |
| Dr. V. K. Wellington Koo, Chinese Ambassador | |
| The Secretary | |
| Mr. W. Walton Butterworth, Director for Far Eastern Affairs |
The Chinese Ambassador brought Mr. Chen Li-fu to call on me today. After the usual courtesies and after conveying greetings from the Generalissimo and Madame Chiang, Mr. Chen Li-fu indicated that he had come to the United States in connection with Moral Kearmament and also to study at firsthand the workings of democracy in the United States. I took this occasion to stress the importance, in terms of Chinese development, of civilian control in the United States of the military authorities and the manner in which that control is importantly exercised by budgetary means. I illustrated this by a general description of the Army procedure both before and during the war; reviewed the various steps that had to be taken in formulating and obtaining approval for the China Aid Program, [Page 362] first within the Department, then in the National Advisory Council, the Bureau of the Budget, by the President himself, and later in the Congress, first before the Foreign Relations Committees of the House and Senate in connection with the enabling legislation and later in the House and Senate Appropriations Committees in connection with the appropriation legislation. But admitting that this was sometimes a long and often a tedious process which proved irksome to the Executive, nevertheless it seemed to me clearly to serve the best interests of the country as a whole over a long period of time. I also touched on the importance, in terms of the Chinese scene, of the Chinese field commanders having to prepare budgetary estimates and, therefore, first learning to know their actual needs and then being committed to apply the funds for the purposes previously requested and granted.
Mr. Chen Li-fu expressed a great interest in this matter and asked if he could be put in touch with the appropriate officials in this Department and in the Department of the Army. Accordingly, I requested Mr. Butterworth to arrange for Mr. Peurifoy98 to see him and to put him in touch with the Budgetary Officer of the Army.
As he was leaving, the Chinese Ambassador handed me an Aide-Memoire regarding the Tibetan Trade Mission99 and in response to his queries, Mr. Butterworth indicated that contrary to his impression, the American Consulate General at Hong Kong had not visaed the Tibetans’ passports but had placed the visas on a special form. Dr. Koo was also informed that this Government’s attitude had not undergone change as regards the general question of Chinese sovereignty over Tibet.