893.51/5286: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
469. Legation’s 465, June 19, 11 a.m. Following from American Consul at Tientsin, mail despatch June 18:
“I learn from a responsible Chinese source that the French police were informed in advance of the object and purpose of the visit to the customhouse on Monday57 morning, and being assured that the plain-clothes men from the Bureau of Public Safety were not entering the concession to conduct police investigations or to make arrests, no objection was made to their entrance with the party.
I am very much of the opinion that the French attitude on the subject of the customs has altered recently and that where at the beginning of the controversy the French authorities were disposed to oppose any attempt to interfere with the customhouse in the French Concession, they later deemed it desirable to assume a more conciliatory attitude towards the Northern faction.
The press having reported that Mr. L. C. Arlington, a former postal commissioner, had accompanied Mr. Lenox Simpson to the customhouse and it having been suggested that Arlington was concerned in the affair and that he is an American citizen, I invited Arlington to call at the Consulate General to see me. He informed me that he was acting as the personal Chinese representative to Simpson.
Arlington admitted to me that he might substitute temporarily in any office in the customhouse should the Inspector General order the evacuation of the present staff. He might substitute for the deputy commissioner if the latter withdraws; or he might substitute for the chief tidesurveyor should that officer abandon office. But he would only do so temporarily in an effort to assist Simpson and prevent any delays in the efficient functioning of the customs.
Arlington further informed me, confidentially, that Yen Hsi-shan plans later to take over the Posts, and that he has agreed to accept an advisership under Yen when this is done.
[Page 241]Arlington stated that Simpson would not likely remain as Commissioner of Customs at Tientsin. He said that Tsinan is likely to fall at any moment and that steps would be taken immediately to take over customs at Tsingtau, Chefoo and Lungkow; that Simpson would eventually become Inspector General of Customs, replacing Mr. Maze; that Mr. Alabaster, a retired Commissioner of Customs, a British subject, now at Peiping, was prepared to come to Tientsin to take over the commissionership, etc. He stated that the 5 percent duties would continue to be remitted to Nanking or Shanghai for the service of foreign obligations secured on the customs and that the balance of the customs revenues would be retained at Tientsin in the Bank of Communications.
Arlington expressed the opinion that even if the Inspector General of Customs at Shanghai orders the Tientsin staff to withdraw, the majority would remain at their posts. He thought that some of the more senior foreign and Chinese members of the staff might feel obliged to withdraw. He stated that there was a very high percentage of Chekiang and Southern Chinese in the customs personnel, but that they appeared to be quite content to throw in their lot with the Northern allies. He admitted, however, that the position of the customs employees is a most unhappy one; their annuities are in the hands of the Inspector General; if they disobey instructions [to withdraw,] they are likely to lose such annuities unless the Northern allies become successful and take over the whole customs service, dismissing Mr. Maze.”