Department of State Press Release, Address of Assistant Secretary of State Dean Rusk at the China Institute Dinner

DEPARTMENT OF STATE FOR THE PRESS MAY 17, 1951 NO. 406 CAUTION FUTURE RELEASE NOTE DATE FOR RELEASE AT 8:00 P.M., E.D.T. FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1951. NOT TO BE PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED, QUOTED FROM OR USED IN ANY WAY. ADDRESS BY THE HONORABLE DEAN RUSK, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FAR EASTERN AFFAIRS, AT THE CHINA INSTITUTE DINNER, WALDORF ASTORIA HOTEL, NEW YORK CITY, AT 8:00 P.M., E.D.T., FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1951. Chinese-American Friendship I should like, first of all, to congratulate the China Institute on its quarter century of splendid public service and to compliment you who are responsible for this timely chance to recall the warm friendship which has marked the relations between the Chinese and American people throughout the last two centuries. Something of what we have in mind this evening is contained in a Concurrent Resolution which passed the Senate on May 4 and which is now before the House of Representatives, which reads in part: "Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the Congress of the United States re- affirm the historic and abiding friendship of the Ameri- can people for all other peoples, including the peoples of the Soviet Union, and declares -- 'That the American people deeply regret the artificial barriers which separate them from the peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and which keep the Soviet peoples from learning of the desire of the American people to live in friendship with all other peoples and to work with them in advancing the ideal of human brotherhood; and "That the American people and their Government desire neither war with the Soviet Union nor the terrible conse- quences of such a war;" Despite the artificial barriers which now separate us from most of the peoples of China, we meet to reaffirm the historic and abiding friendship of the American people for the people of China. Most of you here this evening are better qualified than I to explore the origins and elements of Chinese-American friend- ship. Over the centuries this friendship has come to be taken for granted; cordial sentiments between a free China and a free America became strong and durable because they were constantly nourished by common purposes and common practical interests. FRUMAN We c s ARCHIVES "NATIONAL SERVICE" RECORDS AND PRESERVATION COPY