Date: November 12, 1946
From: AG
To: RBF
Subject:
After numerous revisions, the final draft of the report on the Commission's visit to China is now ready to be typed. It contains additional material beginning on page 23 which bear upon RF-CMB-PUMC relationships.
You have written that there is not the slightest chance that the Trustees would be willing to consider at this time our recommendations. I assume you mean consider favorably, and we shall not, therefore, be surprised though we shall be distressed if the Trustees decline to take the actions recommended.
If in connection with the usual type of grant to an institution I were to get in advance a categorical indication of Trustee unwillingness to consider it favorably, I would withdraw the recommendation, since in such cases the recipient would lose no more than his hopes and the Trustees can always decide what they do not wish to begin to support.
With the report on China the situation is different. I want to report our recommendations to the Trustees. Having no alternative recommendations to make, I do not believe it would be fair to the Commission's work to withdraw our recommendations in anticipation of disagreement on a matter in which the Chinese will lose more than hope, and in which the RF Trustees' position is more nearly that of responsible proprietor than potential contributor.
Continued
Among other defects, the RF-CMB relationship has had the fault of steadily narrowing the number of persons who have familiarity with the situation. Consequently, our sense of personal responsibility has increased and hence I ask to present our views despite the unpleasantness of an apparently certain rejection.