File No. 893.51/1963
The Chargé in China ( MacMurray ) to the Secretary of State
On the 10th instant the Government promulgated regulations concerning gold currency notes and the establishment of a currency commission obviously in pursuance of the secret arrangement reported in my telegram of August 9, 4 p.m.1 These regulations were after publication communicated to the banks holding the option on the currency loan of 1911 as a reply to their request of October last for information as to the project of currency reform for which the Chinese Government had asked funds. The manifest intention of Ministry of Finance was to confront the banks with an unacceptable accomplished fact so that they would reject the proposal and thus forego their option.
After consulting with their respective Legations the representatives of the Japanese and Russian, as well as the British and French banking groups, yesterday entered a joint protest to the Ministry against this infringement of their rights under the currency reform and reorganization loan agreements and stated that the matter had been placed in the hands of their Legations. … It is now understood that the Government will not attempt for time being to put the regulations into force. Should the attempt be made, however, I await authorization to make an independent protest on the basis of the Legation’s note of October 20 last,2 addressed to the Foreign Office in pursuance of your telegram of October 13, 2 p.m.,3 and reported to you in the Legation’s No. 1679, October 22.1 …
- Not printed.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1917, p. 156.↩
- Ibid., p. 149.↩
- Not printed.↩