faulogo chinese textFAU China Convoy Reunion Group

China Convoy


History
July 1941 - May 1942
May 1942 - Feb 1945
Feb 1945 - Jan 1951


Membership
Transport Work
Medical Services
Recon & Rehab
Wartime China
Legacy
Lest we forget
February 1945 - January 1951
With the resumption of overland Allied supplies into China the war against Japan appeared to be moving towards its final phase. The deprivations the Convoy had endured for the last three years began to ease and their feelings of isolation steadily receded with the arrival of Allied forces, supplies of food, fuel and equipment and of a new wave of recruits.

The complexion of the Convoy began to change as many of its original members returned home or took up opportunities elsewhere. They were replaced by new arrivals including increasing numbers of Americans. By early 1946 British members became a minority and in July responsibility for administration of the Convoy passed to the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia as FAU headquarters in London began to wind up its operations.

With the surrender of Japan the hostilities of the Chinese Civil War resumed and steadily intensified. Throughout this struggle the Convoy was able to continue its relief work in both Nationalist and Communist controlled areas, building on the trust they had established with both sides during the Japanese war.

The mix of transportation of medical supplies, civilian and military medical services and reconstruction work continued but with increasing emphasis on the latter, with growing involvement from the newly formed United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. A major rehabilitation project was undertaken in Honan Province which had suffered particularly badly following the destruction of the levees on the Yellow River in 1938. This attempt to halt the Japanese advance resulted in the displacement of the civilian population, the loss of farmland and widespread famine.

With the end of the civil war the Convoy’s position became increasingly untenable, compromised by heightening tensions between the Communist Government and the Western Powers which the Convoy was perceived as representing. This despite the approval the Convoy had received from Chou En Lai who had witnessed their work while acting as Mao’s representative in wartime Chungking. Of perhaps equal significance was China’s emerging self-confidence and capacity to meet its own needs, rendering the justification for the Convoy’s activities less valid.

Throughout 1950 the Convoy’s activity diminished until in January 1951 it finally withdrew.