Office of the Historian

861.77/2282

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Herrick)44

Washington, November 2, 1921.
No. 93

Sir: Mr. John F. Stevens reported to the Department by telegraph on October 14, 1921,45 that he was advised by the French Consul at Harbin that the French Government is in thorough accord with the plan for an international control of the Chinese Eastern Railway but feels that the Russo-Asiatic Bank, which the French Government controls, should be appointed, as heretofore, the financial agent of the railway. Mr. Stevens adds that he perceives no objection to such an arrangement, and that the choice of a bank of any other nationality would be certain to create misunderstanding which should be avoided as far as possible.

According to information obtained by the American Chargé d’Affaires at Archangel, Russia, from his French colleague, early in [Page 611] 1919, a reorganization of the Russo-Asiatic Bank was carried out at Paris in the course of the preceding year, on the basis largely of a “certificate of law and custom” given by a Russian attorney in that city. A translation of this certificate, as furnished by the Chargé d’Affaires at Archangel, is enclosed.46

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It is understood that the capital of the institution was made to consist of the capital of its foreign branches and of the sums owing from correspondents in Europe and Asia.

You will make discreet inquiry of the Foreign Office concerning the reorganization above mentioned and transmit to the Department, at as early a date as possible, such information as you may be able to obtain relative to the present status, both legal and financial, of the Russo-Asiatic Bank.

I am [etc]

For the Secretary of State:
F. M. Dearing

  1. The same, Nov. 2, to the Ambassadors in Great Britain (no. 229) and Italy (no. 48); and, Nov. 1, to the Ambassador in Japan (no. 4) and the Minister in China (no. 22), with the substitution of the following for the final paragraph:

    “The Department has instructed the American Ambassador at Paris to make inquiry of the Foreign Office concerning the reorganization above mentioned and to report, at as early a date as possible, such information as he may be able to obtain relative to the present legal and financial status of the bank in question. Such information as may be obtained on this subject will be forwarded to you on its receipt.”

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  2. Not printed.↩
  3. Not printed.↩