893.51/5281
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson)29
In the course of a visit to the Minister for Foreign Affairs this afternoon, the Foreign Minister told me that he desired to bring up a question with me as soon as I had finished with what I had to discuss. I told him I would be very glad to hear what he had to say and, accordingly, when our discussion of other matters was finished, he told me that what he desired to say was that the Government had understood that Governor Yen Hsi-shan was attempting to seize the Customs House and the customs revenues at Tientsin and the Government was very anxious to have my cooperation in its efforts to prevent such a seizure. He said that the Government was contemplating one or both of two methods of dealing with the situation, either it would instruct the Commissioner of Customs at Tientsin to remove customs collections from the Bank of Communications and [Page 225] place them in a foreign bank “where the funds could not be seized”, or they would have to blockade the port.
I asked Dr. Wang whether it was their intention to make their blockade effective or not. He stated at once that it was their intention to make the blockade effective, that this would not be a mere paper affair. I asked Dr. Wang, somewhat jokingly, “But if you make an effective blockade of Tientsin, how am I to travel from Tientsin to Nanking and return?”
His reply was, “You may travel by way of Shanhaikwan and Dairen.”
I asked Dr. Wang what cooperation he expected us to give him. He stated that it was their hope that we would not oppose the measures which they proposed to take. He stated that he had informed the British Minister of their proposed action and he thought that as regards Americans, there were very few ships, if any, and that it would not be a great hardship so far as we were concerned.
I stated that I did not know the situation as regards American shipping, but that I hoped no obstacle would be placed in the free coming and going of American naval vessels to Tientsin. I understood Dr. Wang to state that this would be taken care of.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in his despatch No. 210, May 17, 1930; received June 18.↩