693.003/433: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France ( Sharp )

2839. The Legation at Peking on November 16 telegraphed that the international conference for revision of the Chinese tariff would meet at Shanghai in January and that the Russian Government desired to have tariff on land-borne commerce excepted from revision. The reported action of the French Government in excepting from revision tariff on commerce over the Indo-China frontier is quoted by Russia as a precedent. The British Government is urging France to relinquish this precedent. You are instructed to make similar representations to the Foreign Office. The claim if allowed will greatly injure sea-borne commerce especially in Manchuria.

Lansing