500.A4e/597: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (MacVeagh) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 26—9:32 a.m.]
53. Last night the Foreign Minister, in an interview, said that reports to the effect that he expected the suspension of the Customs Conference at Peking had no truth in them, and that he had every reason for believing that the Conference would continue until the conferees reached some plan that was definite, at least sufficiently definite to submit it to the Government of China when one was established, reiterating the substance of the statements contained in my 39 of April 26, 5 p.m.69 He believed it to be the expectation of other powers also that the Conference would continue. He said that when Colonel Peel70 went through Tokyo on his way, Peel told him that his departure from Peking in no way indicated any relaxation of British efforts to gain an agreement; the British Minister was to stay in Peking, and the experts for the most part were to continue. The Foreign Minister further stated that Mr. Saburi, the Japanese delegate, might go on a vacation in the latter part of June because he had recently been in poor health owing to overwork, but that at present there was no intention of withdrawing him from Peking.