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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE OFFICE OF THE SOLICITOR WASHINGTON 25 September 11, 1951 Mr. James Lanigan Room 298 Old State Building Washington 25, D. C. Dear Mr. Lanigan: I transmit herewith a memorandum from the Maritime Administra- tion with respect to United Tanker Corporation in accordance with the request which you made at our interview on Friday. It may be helpful to you if I point up this memorandum in the light of what I understand your interest to be. China Trading and Industrial is a private corporation, but ap- parently with close associations with the Nationalist Government as in- dicated by the affiliations of Messrs. Chen and Wei (quotation on pp.2-3). The money made available to United Tanker by China Trading and Industrial came substantially from the Nationalist Government (par. 2, p. 2). China Trading and Industrial chartered two of the tankers to the Nationalist Government's subsidiary, Chinese Petroleum, at twice the rate that China Trading and Industrial was paying the owner, United Tank- er (par. 3, p. 2). Subsequently, China Trading and Industrial released its charter rights to United Tanker who thereupon chartered two of the vessels to Soviet agencies for the transport of oil or petroleum deriva- tives to Communist dominated Chinese or Russian Asiatic ports as indica- ted (bottom of p. 3). Although United Tanker is a Delaware corporation, it acquired the tankers with funds from the Chinese sources indicated (par. 2, p. 2); its stock is now owned by a trust for the benefit of the Chinese and presumably it has at all times been dominated by Chinese of Nationalist affiliation. TRUMAN Sincerely yours, HABRY "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS SERVICE" C.Dicherman Williams SUPERVMENT DECLASSIFIED C. Dickerman Williams Solicitor E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 State Dept. Guideline, June 12, 1979 COMM. LTR. 5-31-79 By NLT- HC NARS, Date 7-12-40