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502720403
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Memorandum to Frank A. Southard, Jr., from Thomas J. Lynch
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doc
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document
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1
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id
502720403
contentType
document
title
Memorandum to Frank A. Southard, Jr., from Thomas J. Lynch
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President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)
Subject Files
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502720403
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29
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1948-04-29
month
4
year
1948
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nara-archive
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1
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ff3aa932ae814edb
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COPY
COPY
Mr. Southard
April 29, 1948
Mr. Lynch
I have reviewed the draft memorandum for the President entitled
"Administrative Terms to Govern the $125 million Grant under the China
Aid Act" prepared in the State Department and sent to you for Treasury
comments.
In this draft memorandum, it is proposed that the President delegate
to the Secretary of the Treasury his power under Section 404(b) of the
Foreign Assistance Act of 1948 to make grants to China out of the $125
million authorized to be appropriated under that provision, if and when funds
are appropriated by the Congress for the purpose, and to "determine" the
"terms" on which such grants should be made. The memorandum quotes the
phrase "administrative terms" from the report of the Senate Committee and
construes it to refer to "procedural and financial terms and not to screen-
ing of requirements or supervision of end use." On the other hand, the
statement concerning Section 404(b) by the Conference Managers on the part
of the House indicates rather strongly that the fund is for "military aid."
To the extent that the handling and disbursement of such a fund involves
only the normal fiscal operations of the Treasury Department, we should,
of course, be prepared to carry out our regular function of setting up the
accounts and making disbursements upon proper vouchers. If the President
decides that the only "terms" to be fixed under the statute are terms of a
purely fiscal character, and that the responsibilities of this Department
would go no further than checking the forms of vouchers and the genuineness
of signatures, we could, of course, undertake the entire responsibility for
the disbursement of this fund.
However, the questions of what grants should be made and of whether
the "terms" should be purely fiscal in character or whether there should
be included other "terms" relating to the purposes of and usesto which the
money will be put or safeguards against the dissipation of the funds are
not of a character normally falling within the responsibilities of this
Department and the administration of such requirements should not properly
be assigned to the Treasury Department. The decision on what grants should
be made, whether there should be terms other than those of a normal fiscal
character and the assignment of any functions requiring the exercise of
discretion in connection with any terms other than purely fiscal ones to
an appropriate agency of the Government (not the Treasury Department)
should precede the assignment of any functions to this Department.