File No. 893.51/1049.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassador to Germany.1
Washington, September 11, 1912.
The French Chargé d’Affaires states that the French Ambassador at Berlin has been instructed to point out to the German Government that the concession sought by a German firm for the Peking tramways, providing also for an advance to the Chinese Government, is not in accordance with the financial agreements sanctioned by the six Governments.
If your interested colleagues are instructed in the same sense you may cooperate with them by informing the Minister for Foreign Affairs that this Government has on several occasions expressed concurrence with the other interested Governments in the view that no loans should be made to China without adequate provisions for the supervision of expenditures substantially on the bases of the bankers’ telegrams of May 15–June 20. This position was confirmed by the proposal recently initiated by the six ministers at Peking, that each before approving of any loan should be assured that its provisions as to control are satisfactory. In this connection the last paragraph of the Department’s note to the German Ambassador of February 3, 1912, is appropriate.
American firms desirous of engaging in business of this character have uniformly been deterred because the Department, mindful of the international understanding regarding loans to China, deemed that in addition to insistence upon proper control it would be unwise to encourage any provincial or municipal loans until more stable financial conditions have been established in China.
- Repeated to the missions at London, Paris, St. Petersburg, and to Peking for repetition to Tokyo for their information.↩