THE WHITE HOUSE
                         WASHINGTON
                         
                                        April 21, 1942
 
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT:
 
     Re: PROGRESS OF CHINA's AIR TRANSPORT PROGRAM
 
     I have been endeavoring to check on Louis Johnson's
cable to you on this matter.  I have not been able to find
out anything definite about the amount of freight currently 
being carried into Burma and China. According to General
George, however, the situation with reference to planes is
as follows.
 
     There should be at General Stilwell's disposal, either
for operation by CNAC or by the Army, 11 transport planes.
This includes 3 owned by CNAC.  There are 16 transport
planes en route, all of which, if all goes well, should
arrive within ten days. Nine additional are scheduled to
leave within the next week.  This would make 36 planes in
all.  Although General Naiden has advised that he does not
feel that he can handle more than 25 initially, General 
George has decided to send 50 to India as soon as possible.
 
     He has dispatched a picked ground crew to handle the
line and is dispatching two crews per plane for the first
25 planes, and initially one crew per plane for the second
25.  He hopes to increase this later, but he is relying, 
 in the initial operations, on some help from CNAC and 
Pan American Airways.
 
     Before General Bissell left for China the relative
merits of Army and Pan-Am operations were thoroughly
canvassed. The decision finally turned on the fact that
Pan-Am could not undertake to recruit the necessary number
of civilian pilots and ground personnel in any reasonable
period.  The delay in getting the Army program under way is
largely attributable to the fact that most of the planes
available were taken from the domestic airlines, and were
in need of extensive alterations for the China service/
The program should step up rapidly from now on.
 
               Lauchlin Currie