The power of the “Stockpile”: American aid and China’s Wartime everyday

ABSTRACT

This article argues that American and British narratives about the existence of a “stockpile” of Chinese goods had a powerful impact on US-China relations, China’s war effort, and China’s wartime everyday. Focusing on both the material and discursive construction of the so-called stockpile in the early 1940s, the work seeks to deconstruct a powerful symbol that was long used by both British and American officials (particularly in the US War Department) to delegitimize the Nationalist government’s war effort against Japan. Drawing on sources collected at archives in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan, the article seeks to rethink many commonly held assumptions about American aid and to reveal the powerful influence that the symbolic presence of the stockpile had in shaping Sino-American relations in the wartime period and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Sino-Japanese War
• US-China relations
• stockpile
• foreign aid
• War Department
• Hump airlift
• India
• Chongqing
• Nationalist Party

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Glossary

Chongqing (Chungking)	=	重庆
duban	=	督办
Hami	=	哈密
Kunming	=	昆明
Lanzhou	=	兰州
Sheng Shicai	=	盛世才
Song Ziwen (T. V. Soong)	=	宋子文
Wanting	=	畹町
Xingxingxia	=	星星峡
Yili	=	伊犁

Notes

¹ Summary of Major CDS Shipments of Lend-Lease Material from USA, May 18, 1941–Dec. 13, 1943, Inclusive [no date], China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 1:12.

² United States Department of State, The China White Paper.

³ This larger argument is powerfully represented in the literature on the wartime period in works up to the 2000s. The most direct and influential example of this perspective is Barbara Tuchman’s, Stilwell and the American. In this work, Tuchman draws heavily on US archival sources; the papers of Joseph Stilwell, American liaison to Chiang Kai-shek until 1944; and the papers of a large number of China critics in the War Department and the State Department.

⁴ Recent literature reevaluating Chiang Kai-shek and Sino-American relations during wartime have tended to rely more heavily on Chinese archival sources and perspectives. The most prominent of these texts include Mitter, Forgotten Ally; Pomfret, Beautiful Country; Taylor, The Generalissimo; and van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China.

⁵ Zhang Baijia, “China’s Quest for Foreign Military Aid,” 86. See also Kirby, Germany and Republican China.

⁶ “Yang Jie guanyu jianding Zhong-Su di yi,” 602–606.

⁷ “Junshi weiyuanhui canmou cizhang Yang Jie,” 465. See also Shen Zhihua, Zhong Su guanxi shigang, 61.

⁸ “Yang Jie chaosong Zhong-Su di yi ci,” 610–623; “Kong Xiangxi fu song Zhong-Su jiekuan,” 631–632. These shipments were frequently fraught with diplomatic tension, as Chinese orders were frequently made in an ad hoc and chaotic manner. See Garver, Chinese Soviet Relations.

⁹ Certain types of material, including gunpowder and artillery shells, were shipped via Hong Kong and also Rangoon, presumably to minimize the risk of fire or explosions. See Shen Zhihua, Zhong Su guanxi shigang, 61.

¹⁰ Teichman, “The Motor Route from Peking,” 297–307.

¹¹ Mirovitskaya and Semyomenov, The Soviet Union and China, 330–331.

¹² Zhang Baijia, “China’s Quest for Foreign Military Aid,” 297.

¹³ “Lease Lend and Duff Cooper,” The Economist, Sept. 13, 1941, from Lease Lend Goods for China and Mr. Duff Cooper (Sept. 13, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371–196, 100–101.

¹⁴ See Telegram from J. H. Cubbon (Administrator of Chinese Customs) to Sterndale Bennet, Traffic over the Burma Road (Sept. 11, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371–196, 32–87.

¹⁵ The program was coordinated by the Division of Defense Aid Reports, under the Office of the President. This office, which was overseen by Roosevelt’s close aid Harry Hopkins, was the first step in the process of requisition. Completed formal requisition requests were then sent to the Bureau of the Budget, which issued formal letters of allocation to be signed by the president. The War Department established a series of internal committees, the Defense Aid Requirement Committees, which processed requests from individual countries and then distributed the requests to budget officers within the War Department. The requests then went on to arms manufacturers with War Department contracts. Nonmilitary supplies were processed by the Treasury Department. Distribution was handled within the US Maritime Commission’s Division of Emergency Shipping, which allocated ship bottoms for the delivery of military and nonmilitary supplies to the Far East. See Coordination of Liaison Activities [no date], China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 1:13.

¹⁶ Press Release (Apr. 28, 1941), China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 1:13.

¹⁷ In what particularly notable case, British officials complained about the massive accumulation of bandages in India that had been contributed by the China Relief Fund without any means of transport to China. See Board of Trade, Bandages in India Awaiting Transport to China (Oct. 12, 1943); Major Hankey (War cabinet offices), Chinese Medical Supplies in India” (Oct. 20,1943); R. C. Cliver (War cabinet offices), Chinese Medical Supplies in India” (Nov. 2, 1943); A. N. Coleridge (War cabinet offices), Chinese Medical Supplies in India” (Nov. 18, 1943); Chinese Lend-Lease Stockpile in India, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371:808, 47–65.

¹⁸ Copy of a telegram from the ambassador at Chongqing, Import Tonnage over Burma Road to Kunming (Nov. 12, 1941), Burma Road 4, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371:196, 85–87.

¹⁹ Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Mission to China, 42.

²⁰ E. M. Nicholson to Ashley Clarke, Transport of Lease-Lend Goods for China via Burma (Sept. 6, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371–196, 2–17.

²¹ Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Mission to China, 47.

²² One other issue British officials in Burma continually sought to work on was the clearer organization of ships coming into Rangoon. Port officials, Burmese colonial leaders, and the British Foreign Office sought clearer notification from the Americans about departure dates for ships leaving the United Sates and expected arrival dates in Rangoon.

²³ Major General Davidson to H. Seymour, Burma Road (no date), Burma Road 2, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371:196, 170–175, 173.

²⁴ F. E. W. Barnett to Ashley Clarke, Oil Supplies for China via the Burma Road” (Sept. 10, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371–196, 27–31.

²⁵ From an article in the New York Times, quoted in Pomfret, Beautiful Country, 274.

²⁶ Arnstein was the head of the second largest taxi fleet in New York. The report he wrote was the most influential investigation of traffic problems along the Burma Road. For a copy of the report, see W. Annan to John Brenan, Trucking Operations on the Burma Road (Oct. 7, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371–196, 149–242. Chiang Kai-shek was said to be quite enamored of Arnstein’s report and used it as a justification for asserting more direct control over the route.

²⁷ War Cabinet Papers, Burma Yunnan Railway Project (Jan. 30, 1941), Burma Yunnan Railway 1, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371:29, 130–154, 138–139.

²⁸ Telegram from Governor of Burma to Secretary of State for Burma, Hold Up of Goods for China (Sept. 15, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371-196, 98–99.

²⁹ A. Noble to Burma Office, Burma Road (Sept. 17, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371-196, 112–113.

³⁰ Foreign Office Minutes, Transit of Goods to China via the Burma Road (Oct. 1, 1941), Burma Road 3, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371–196, 140–144.

³¹ Telegram from T. V. Soong to Wellington Koo, [no title] (Feb. 5, 1942), China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 4:14.

³² War Cabinet Papers, Burma Yunnan Railway Project (Jan. 30, 1941), Burma Yunnan Railway 1, British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371: 29, 29-1007, 155–156.

³³ Government of India Telegram to China, Development of Trans-Tibet Transport Route to China (Apr. 2, 1942), Development of Supply Routes to China (1), British Foreign Office Collection, file no. 371:78, 12–14.

³⁴ Planning Committee Meeting, Summary of Discussion (Oct. 7, 1942), China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 11:8.

³⁵ Letter from David Corcoran, (no title) (Jul. 14, 1942), China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 2:7.

³⁶ Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Command Problems, 281.

³⁷ Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Mission to China, 83.

³⁸ Ibid., 45.

³⁹ Quoted in ibid., 75.

⁴⁰ Ibid., 161.

⁴¹ Ibid., 28.

⁴² Ibid., 44.

⁴³ To cite one example among many, the official army history quotes an article in the Indian press that credits “US enterprise and hustle” with resolving the difficulties of delivering supplies from the port at Calcutta to the airfields in Dinjan. See Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Command Problems, 273.

⁴⁴ For examples of this, see van de Ven, China at War, 197; and also Fredman, “From Allies to Occupiers.”

⁴⁵ Letter from T. V. Soong to Assistant Secretary of War John McClory (Mar. 6, 1942), China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 2:18.

⁴⁶ Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Mission to China, 375.

⁴⁷ Memorandum on China Lend-Lease Supply, Draft (Apr. 21, 1942), China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 2:18.

⁴⁸ First Meeting of Planning Committee, Summary of Discussion” (Aug. 6, 1942), China Defense Supply Collection, file no. 11:8, 47.

⁴⁹ Ibid., 51.

⁵⁰ Recent literature reevaluating Chiang Kai-shek and Sino-American relations during the war have tended to rely more heavily on Chinese archival sources and perspectives. The most prominent of these texts include Mitter, Forgotten Ally; Pomfret, Beautiful Country; Taylor, The Generalissimo; and van de Ven, War and Nationalism in China.

⁵¹ Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Command Problems, 258.

⁵² Fredman, “GIs and ‘Jeep Girls’,” 76–101.

⁵³ Over the course of the war, Roosevelt continually issued calls to increase the tonnage reaching China. Notably, in late 1943 following a series of broken promises made to Chiang at the Cairo conference, Roosevelt insisted that China would receive 12,000 tons of equipment per month via the American airlift. See Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell’s Command Problems, 80.

⁵⁴ Romanus and Sunderland, US Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Time Runs out in CBI, 10.

⁵⁵ Comprehensive Inventory of “C” Type China Defense Supplies in the India Stockpile, as of September 30, 1945 (Sept. 30, 1945), Ministry of Foreign Affairs Collection, file no. 18-26-07-002-01, 5.

⁵⁶ Ibid., 4.

⁵⁷ See Zhanshi cun Mian wuzi qingli, san [Arranging the Wartime Storage of Goods in Burma, 3] (1947), Ministry of Foreign Affairs Collection, file no. 020-991100-0946.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Judd KINZLEY

Judd KINZLEY is an associate professor of modern Chinese history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His first book, Natural Resources and the New Frontier: Constructing Modern China’s Borderlands (University of Chicago Press, 2018) focuses on the power of transnational resource extraction enterprises in shaping Xinjiang in the twentieth century. He is currently working on a new project that seeks to understand the long-term impact of American foreign aid to China during the Sino-Japanese War period.