893.51/3162: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in China (Crane)
3. Your 464, December 27, 5 p.m.
The Department welcomes the opportunity to revert to a more regular procedure in this matter, the Diplomatic Body taking no formal cognizance of such allocations of funds as the Peking Government may see fit to make to the so-called Southern Government. It considers that any such arrangement should properly be a matter for the decision of the Peking Government without reference to the Treaty Powers who recognize only the Government at Peking and look solely to it for the fulfillment of obligations charged upon the Customs revenues. It is therefore desired that you take the position [Page 495] that the Diplomatic Body should concern itself solely with the release to the recognized Government of China of customs balances available after satisfaction of Boxer Indemnity90 and service of pre-Boxer loans, and that it should neither sanction nor make objection to the subsequent allocation of such funds to the Southern Government.