Office of the Historian

893.51/3397: Telegram

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

Peking, May 3, 1921—5 p.m.
[Received May 4—3:04 a.m.]

173. Department’s 128, April 29, noon.80 Williams was nominally installed as Associate Inspector General, Wine and Tobacco Administration, by Minister of Finance on September 1st, 1920, with an office in the Ministry of Finance but has never been vested with any authority of any sort. Minister of Finance placed at his disposal such information regarding revenue as is on file in Ministry of Finance but Director General of the Wine and Tobacco Administration has declined to permit him to function in the administration in any way, even for the purpose of securing information. Inspectorate general referred to in Williams’ letter of September 6th with my despatch number 223, September 18th,80 has never been established nor has administration furnished any information apart from one skeleton statement of revenue collected 1919. See also Legation’s despatch 422, November 5th [4th], 1920;80 also Legation’s 250, September 9, 5 p.m.81 for stand Minister of Finance.

Crane
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. Not printed.↩
  4. Foreign Relations, 1920, vol. i, p. 659.↩