811.91293/139

The Secretary of State to the Minister in China ( MacMurray )

No. 1133

Sir: The Department refers to the Legation’s despatches No. 1339 of January 5, 1928, and No. 1628 of August 15, 1928,7 in regard to the alleged violation by certain foreign interests in China of international radio arrangements to which China is a party.

The Department has given careful consideration to the statements of fact embodied in the enclosures to these two despatches, the general purport of which is that radio receiving stations operated in China by the naval authorities and citizens of various nationalities are making a practice of receiving, transcribing and distributing to the press radio messages broadcast from stations in foreign countries. The Department assumes that in reporting these actions to the Department the Legation has in mind particularly the resolution passed by the Powers participating in the discussion of Pacific and Far Eastern questions at Washington on February 1, 1922.8

The international agreement embodied in this resolution and its accompanying declarations would seem to forbid the distribution of foreign radio messages as described above. However, the Department has received the impression that the attitude of the present Nationalist Government of China toward the importation and use of radio apparatus differs from that of the Chinese Government in power when the resolution in question was passed, in that the importation of all radio [Page 834] apparatus was then prohibited but is now permitted under rules promulgated in different areas. It occurs to the Department, therefore, that if the Nationalist Government now permits the importation of radio receiving apparatus and imposes no restrictions of a sort that would forbid the dissemination of messages broadcast by stations in foreign countries it has rendered the situation such that the resolution of February 1, 1922, is inapplicable.

You are requested to ascertain whether regulations governing the importation and use of radio apparatus have been promulgated by the Nationalist Government of China, and if they have, whether they would prohibit the dissemination of radio messages received by broadcast from stations in foreign countries. In the absence of regulations issued by the Nationalist Government, the Department desires to have the same information in regard to such local regulations as may be operative. In making your investigations you will, of course, be careful not to indicate that this Government is officially raising any question regarding the interpretation or carrying out of the resolution regarding radio stations in China.

The information obtained by you should be briefly reported to the Department in a telegram, followed, if necessary, by a longer explanation in a written despatch.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
Nelson Trusler Johnson
  1. Neither printed.
  2. Resolution viii, Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 293.