893.51/2864: Telegram
The Minister in China (Crane) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 12—2:04 a.m.]
180. Your July 9, 6 p.m. On June 2d Foreign Office in reply to this Legation’s note of May 13th [announcing] that the Embassy at Tokyo reported that Japan had withdrawn all reservations and that [Page 549] the Japanese banking group had become a member of the consortium, sent to me a note stating that the banking group in Peking has not yet taken up the matter with the Minister of Finance, and therefore the Foreign Minister desired to advise me of this circumstance and to request that I would, if able to do so, inform him fully in regard to details of the matter, for which he expressed gratitude in advance. Although I considered a reply to such an individual inquiry as a concern of this Legation alone, I showed my draft reply to the British Minister, who, while approving its terms, suggested that the matter be brought to the attention of the French and Japanese Ministers. This I did as a matter of courtesy, and the four Legations have been since then in frequent consultation. See my 149, June 26, noon.
While the British and French Legations have been in practical accord with me from the beginning, the Japanese Minister has unfortunately followed a policy of obstruction and evasive delay. At the last meeting, on July 7, therefore, I clearly let it be known that in my view any further delay was undesirable, and that evening I translated [transmitted?] the following reply to the Chinese Foreign Office.
“I now have the honor to enclose answer [copies] of the notes exchanged between the representative of the Japanese banking group and Mr. Lamont, American banking group representative, on May 11.36 Your Excellency will observe from this that the four national banking group[s] have joined the consortium unconditionally. On his part Mr. Lamont, as American group representative, with the approval of the British and French banking group[s], has excepted from the scope of the consortium those enterprises in Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia in which Japanese capital and labor have already been expended or for which the Japanese group have already obtained definite concessions. If the Chinese Government desires to invoke the assistance of the new consortium in any large undertakings in China, I shall be happy to transmit the wishes of the Chinese Government to the American group in the consortium and assist in bringing about the realization of those wishes.”
The Japanese Minister has subsequently expressed surprise and regret at my action, and has asked me to take note of the fact that he cannot regard the reply as having been made with his consent since, so far as he was concerned, no agreement was reached at the meeting of Ministers as regards the date on which the note was to be sent in. In answer I have expressed regret that there should have been any misunderstanding; that I had regarded the despatch of the note as a matter which concerned this Legation; that at the last meeting I had made it plain that in my judgment any assistance [sic] further [delay] was undesirable; that this judgment had been [Page 550] strengthened by the fact that Japanese officials both in China and Japan had given free expression to their views regarding the consortium without consultation with the officials of any Government and that in the circumstances I felt at entire liberty to transmit without further delay a reply to the individual inquiry addressed to me by the Chinese Government leaving any joint representations to follow later. My allusion to Japanese [statements] had [reference] particularly [to] Uchida’s36 announcement of July 3d for which Obata37 was obviously waiting before giving his consent to my note, and the statement issued to Chinese officials at Nanking by the Japanese consul several days before.