Historical Note
China Defense Supplies, Inc. was the main agency for coordinating Lend-Lease aid to China from the United States. Incorporated in the United States in 1941, China Defense Supplies was an organization of the Chinese government chaired by T. V. Soong, but staffed by Americans and based in Washington, D.C.
In 1941, China Defense Supplies worked to improve transportation over the Burma Road, the main Lend-Lease supply route to China. When the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942 impeded access to the Burma Road, China Defense Supplies initiated the Emergency Air Transport Program to fly goods from India to China and helped to develop an air transport route over a stretch of the Himalayas nicknamed "The Hump." China Defense Supplies also worked to secure supplies for the American Volunteer Group, also known as the Flying Tigers.
As Soong spent increasingly less time in Washington during the latter years of the war, the decision was made to dissolve China Defense Supplies in 1944 and establish a successor organization, the Chinese Supply Commission, which was also active in obtaining reconstruction aid for China following the war. S. C. Wang became the chairman of this organization in September 1945, when the activities of the Chinese Supply Commission shifted from wartime supply to the procurement of materials needed to rebuild China's economy.
From the guide to the China Defense Supplies records, 1940-1947, (Hoover Institution Archives)
