File No. 893.773/31.
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Guthrie.
Washington, December 8, 1914.
Sir: In continuance of the Department’s instruction No. 76 of November 19, 1914, there is sent you enclosed herein the copy of a despatch to the Legation at Peking No. 38, of November 7, 1914, from the American Consul at Newchwang which supplies further evidence of discrimination against American and European trade and navigation in the freight rates of the South Manchuria Railway Company.
The Department hopes that the representations already made by you to the Japanese Foreign Office may have led to such modification of the regulations regarding shipments via Japan and Shanghai as shall have removed the discrimination of which complaint has been made.
If, upon receipt of this instruction, this desired end shall not have been attained already, you are instructed to bring the subject once more to the attention of the Foreign Office and request such modification of the published rates and rules as will remove all just cause of complaint on the part of American merchants.
I am [etc.]