861.77/2022: Telegram

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

141. Dr. Wang, Second Vice President Chinese Eastern, informs Legation that two million gold is necessary to finance the railway for 1921 and that at a meeting to be held by the Railway Board in April resolutions will be adopted urging payment of three million gold due the railway for the evacuation of Czecho-Slovak troops in the winter of 1920. Dr. Wang has asked Legation to whom this account should be addressed as up to the present time it has been charged to Czecho-Slovak Government who have as yet been unable to meet this obligation which in its finality the railway understood to be an inter-Allied obligation. It has been suggested that the charge may be against established United States Government credits. Dr. Wang asks that as the financial condition of the railway and also the willingness of certain Japanese banks to advance money are well known to John F. Stevens, now in the United States, upon consultation with him the Legation may be instructed by the Department what reply if any should be made to Dr. Wang regarding the present financial situation of the railway. Colonel Johnson advised.

Crane