Extracted text

OCR Page 1 of 6
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL Dear John: I appreciated very much your good letter of March twenty-eighth concerning the China situation, I have thought of that matter very carefully in the light of this letter, and in the light of the conversations I have had with you on this subject. I am sure that it would not be wise to appoint a fact-finding com- mission for this purpose. I have not said much about the situation in China be- cause a frank statement of the facts would only make matters worse. But we know all too well what the facts are. General Marshall spent a year in China, and then I had General Wedemeyer over there for quite awhile, We have had complete reports from them, as well as from General Barr, who has been quite familiar with the Chinese military set-up. We also get regular reports from other sources, Much of this information has been put before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I am told, however, that General Barr has not appeared before the House Committee, although he has appeared before the Senate Committee. It seems to me that it would be helpful for the House Committee to hear General Barr on this subject, If this is to be arranged, it should be done promptly as he is scheduled to leave for a foreign assignment within a few days, But, if the Committee wants to hear him, I will keep him here long enough for that purpose. We must maintain a flexible position in which we can deal appropriately with the situation in China as it develeps, I am sure that this can be done better by the Congress and the Executive Branch using the regular methods, than it could be done if the situ- : SERVICE E51 729