Memorandum: by the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth) to the Deputy Under-Secretary of State (Rusk)

Date: June 9, 1949, Washington

Subject: Proposed Statement to the United Nations

Under the Cairo Declaration of December 1, 1943, to which both the United States and the United Kingdom were parties, the intention was expressed to restore to the Republic of China the territories, such as Manchuria and Formosa, which had earlier been lost to Japan. The Cairo Declaration, however, further declared that the determination of the final status of Formosa must await the conclusion of a peace settlement for Japan. Having watched with mounting concern the misrule of Formosa by the Chinese governing authorities since VJ Day, the United States has reached the conclusion that the Chinese Government has forfeited the right to a perfunctory confirmation of sovereignty at the time of concluding a peace settlement with Japan, . . . .

[ source: United States Department of State / Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. China, Volume IX ]

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