Office of the Historian

893.74/59: Telegram

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

Washington, February 2, 1921—5 p.m.

49. Your telegram 41, January 20, 2 p.m. While reserving the question of approval of Federal Wireless contract, the Department desires that you contest Marconi claim to monopoly for supply of wireless materials. You should address a communication to the Chinese Foreign Office, referring to your number 1049 of December 9, 1919,6 and state that this Government cannot acquiesce in any attempt to abridge the equal opportunities of its nationals through the establishment of a monopoly of this kind in violation of our Treaty of 18447 and of French Treaties of 1844 and 1858. You will also recall that in the similar case of the Western Electric Company’s contract with the Chinese Government for partnership in manufacture of electrical supplies the Legation notified the Chinese Government that it would not support a like monopolistic clause.8

Colby
  1. Not printed.↩
  2. For text of treaty, see Hunter Miller (ed.), Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, vol. 4, p. 559.↩
  3. See footnote 2, p. 406.↩