893.74/548b
The Department of State to the Japanese Embassy
Memorandum
The Government of the United States has given further consideration to the suggestions contained in the memorandum of the Japanese Embassy dated December 24, 1924, concerning overseas radio facilities in, China. With a view to the reconcilement of the divergent views entertained by the Governments of the United States and of Japan on this subject, and in the hope of bringing about an amicable adjustment of virtually the only remaining question of controversy between the two countries, the Government of the United States ventures to propose that the following plan of operation of the Federal and Mitsui radio stations in China should be adopted as a means of affording adequate overseas radio facilities for that country in a manner providing a fair division of the radio business between China and the United States and China and Japan:
The Federal Telegraph Company agrees to accept at any of its stations in China traffic for Japan and to transmit all such traffic to the Mitsui station at Peking for retransmission to Japan; the Mitsui station agrees to accept traffic for the United States and transmit all such traffic to the nearest Federal station in China for retransmission to the United States, the division of all charges in each case to be in proportion to the services performed by the several companies. It is understood that for the remainder of the world free competition will exist.
It is believed by the Government of the United States that an arrangement for the interchange of traffic as above described would prove profitable to the companies concerned and economical for the [Page 903] Chinese Government. It is hoped that the suggestion which is offered as an alternative to the proposal made in the Japanese Embassy’s memorandum of December 24, 1924, and in a spirit of accommodation to the expressed desire of the Japanese Government that the uncertainty that has existed for several years should be definitely removed, will meet with the approval of the Japanese Government and that the Chinese Government, which would profit equally by the arrangement, will interpose no objection. It is believed by the Government of the United States that the plan as herein suggested is more feasible than that suggested in the Japanese Embassy’s memorandum of December 24, 1924, in that it simplifies operating arrangements, brings into accord the views of the several national radio interests, whose contentions until now have seemed irreconcilable, and conforms with the principle of equality of opportunity in commercial enterprises in China.