893.512 Flour/26: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9 p.m.]
597. Department’s 234, July 23, 5 p.m. Following from consul general at Shanghai:
“August 1, 10 a.m. Flour-tax regulations have already been issued and tax of $100 paid on 1,000 bags of flour by American firms. According [to] treaty, flour pays no import duty; only wharfage dues are leviable. The Bank of China, into which import duties and wharfage dues originally paid, decline to accept wharfage dues until flour tax has been paid, and the Customs will not stamp shipping documents unless the Bank of China’s receipt is produced. Machinery of Customs used indirectly to enforce payment of tax. That [The] British and French have protested. A protest will be filed against the levying of this tax.”