Thanks Matt.
The letter reproduced in the article is dated December 2, 1936. The timing is interesting. Manning is listed as the navigator (of course) but notice that the itinerary goes from San Francisco to Nanking, China and from there to Hong Kong. This was in line with Earhart's original hare-brained plan to fly nonstop from Hawaii to Japan, refueling inflight from a Navy PBY over Midway, but by December 2 the plan to build a runway on one of the American Equatorial Islands was already well underway and on December 4 the Navy received official notice that "arrangements for refueling Earhart no longer required." (Finding Amelia, page 8.)