Office of the Historian

893.801 Search/8: Telegram

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

Peiping, March 3, 1930—1 p.m.
[Received March 3—10 a.m.71]

166. Legation’s 165, March 2, 11 a.m.

1.
Legation is sending the following reply to the American Consul General at Hankow:

“March 3, 1 p.m. Legation’s March 2, 11 a.m.

(1)
British treaty 1902, article 14,72 provides for an embargo being placed on the export of rice. Irrespective of the question whether [Page 92] the present embargo has been laid in accordance with treaty provisions, the Legation perceives no objection [object?] in protesting against the regulations since neither American, Chinese nor shipping firms are, so far as is known, interested in the export of rice and since the Hunan provincial authorities have in any event issued orders that the Standard Oil vessels be exempted from search.
(2)
The present difficulty would appear to be the result of a lack of coordination among the Chinese authorities concerned. The Legation believes therefore that you should continue to press the appropriate civil authorities with either [sic] order for exemption from search being made effective.”
2.
In the last six months the Legation has protested on several occasions but without avail to the Minister for Foreign Affairs against the search of American merchantmen on the Lower Yangtze. (See Legation’s mail despatch number 2331, September 18th, 1929.73) The Legation believes the present an appropriate occasion to renew representations to Nanking on this subject.
For the Minister:
Perkins
  1. Telegram in two sections.↩
  2. Signed at Shanghai, September 5, 1902; British and Foreign State Papers, vol. xcv, p. 39.↩
  3. Despatch not printed; for its enclosure No. 867 to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs, see Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, p. 472.↩