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    "localId": "509550784",
    "label": "Memorandum re Nationalist China Lobby",
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    "id": "509550784",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Memorandum re Nationalist China Lobby",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/509550784",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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{
    "seq": 2,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
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    "ocrText": "-2-\noperated in China post war as an import and export concern, which\nultimately is presumed to have been sold to a Canadian named Martin Gold,\nbut which in American gossip in Shanghai in 1947-1948 was thought to have\namounted really to a sale to Dr. H. H. Kung, with Gold functioning as his\nmanager, At any rate William Hunt, over the years, in his business\nenterprises in China has acted in a highly realistic way, as demonstrated\nby events, in his approaches to and dealings with Chinese Government\nofficials and is believed to have known or dealt with most of those in\ncontrol of Government spending for anything produced in the United States.\nMost prominent among these Chinese Government officials and the one with\nwhom he was probably best acquainted appears to have been Dr. H. H. Kung,\nwho was alternately Finance Minister, and Governor of the Central Bank.\nMrs. Kung is a sister of T. V. Soong and of Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.\nIt is doubted whether among American businessmen in general who\noperated in China during and after the war, there would have been any who\nparticipated in anything like a China Lobby consciously, although there\nmay be some who may have boosted this or that project proposed for China\nwith the notion that the sale of American equipment, through their hands,\nmight be negotiated. It is recalled, for example, that on one occasion\nNorwood F. Allman, an American attorney of Shanghai, about 1947 or\nthereabouts, before some congressional committee, supported, with his\nviews, the idea that silver should be put back into circulation in China\nas the circulating currency medium - remonetised. This was possibly\nthought of at the time as a silver credit to China or loan. A good deal\nof publicity attended the pronouncements of those who were in favor of\nsuch a deal at the time, but it seems likely that the persons could\nscarcely be regarded as participating in a pro-Nationalist China lobby.\nIt appears more likely that Mr. Allman believed it would be good for\nbusiness - good for the greater viability of American business in China -\nand thus good for his clients.\nAs a source of information Mr. Charles Schelke, Manager, Andersen\nMeyer & Co., - largest American importing and exporting house, a\nsubsidiary of General Electric Company and sales agents for its products\nin China, along with many other electrical and engineering lines, might\nbe useful if he is in this country. Could be located through the New\nYork office of General Electric Company. He was for possibly two annual\nterms President of the American Chamber of Commerce of Shanghai in the\npost war period. Far from being suspect of participating in anything\nlike a China Lobby he ferreted out and ran down the facts relating to many\nof the Chinese Nationalist Government's restrictions upon trade and of the\ncorrupt practices surrounding trade, some of which appeared as favoring\ncompanies allegedly owned by Chinese Government persons of prominence.\nHe might know of persons who might be suspected of having unusually close\nassociations with Chinese Government personnel and who might, therefore,\nbe connected with a China Lobby."
}