File No. 893.51/1808
Ambassador Page to the Secretary of State
London, September 19, 1917, 5 p.m.
7201. Your 5399, September 8, 4 p.m., and my 7150, September 11, 4 p.m. Foreign Office has received a telegram from Alston, British Chargé d’Affaires at Peking, and now writes me as follows: [Page 142]
Mr. Alston states that in the course of a private and unofficial discussion of the Chinese Government’s loan projects which took place between the representatives of the Consortium and the Minister of Finance, the latter made certain informal proposals in regard to a loan for currency reform purposes which the Group representatives could not decline to examine but that the matter has not gone beyond the stage of informal discussion.
Mr. Alston has been informed by telegraph that although His Majesty’s Government are fully alive to the advantages of currency reform in China, they have not modified their views in regard to the Chinese Government’s loan proposals which were explained in the memorandum handed to the Secretary of State by His Majesty’s Chargé d’Affaires in Washington on the 21st ultimo.