File No. 893.773/45.
Ambassador Guthrie to the Secretary of State .
Tokyo , April 6, 1915 .
Sir: Continuing my despatch No. 242 of March 29, I have the honor to state that on the 5th instant the British Ambassador informed me that in a recent conversation with the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, Baron Kato had said to him that if an application were made by any British line for the establishment of through rates from Shanghai on the same basis as those already established with Japanese lines, he would lend his aid to securing the consummation of the arrangement. In the same connection the Ambassador gave me a copy of an unofficial letter which he had sent to Sir John Jordan, the British Minister in Peking, suggesting that the latter instruct some British company in Shanghai to make an application for the benefit of these through rates and to advise him at once when this had been done so that he could call upon Baron Kato for the latter’s promised assistance, and consummate the arrangement as a precedent.
I have [etc.]