893.512/546: Telegram
The Minister in China ( MacMurray ) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 12—6:10 a.m.]
137. My 116, February 7, 9 a.m. Commissioner of Foreign Affairs at Hankow on January 25 notified American consul general that as the result of a conference between the Kuomintang Executive Committee and the delegates of the Nationalist Government it has been decided that the customhouses in the Provinces of Hupeh, Hunan and Kiangsi shall collect a river embankment surtax of one percent on exports and imports for the construction of dikes in Hupeh. I am instructing Lockhart33 to lodge a formal written protest which I do not expect will prove of any avail.
This is a further instance of the chaotic situation in which foreign trade now finds itself as the result of the breakdown of the treaty provisions.
- Frank P. Lockhart, consul general at Hankow.↩