File No. 893.114/165

The Secretary of State to the Minister in China ( Reinsch)

[Telegram]

A cablegram dated July 3 from Peking to American newspapers reports that Chinese Government has agreed to purchase opium stocks of Shanghai combine for Treasury bills intending to resell, [Page 210] Please investigate and report. If true, you are instructed to say to the Minister for Foreign Affairs that the American Government which has been so greatly interested in the suppression of the opium traffic and received such earnest support from China regrets profoundly that action seemingly of a retrograde character is being taken.

Lansing