893.51/5262
The Minister in China ( Johnson ) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 22.]
Sir: With reference to the Legation’s despatch No. 35, of February 19, 1930,32 respecting a further default on December 3, 1929, in the service of the Hukuang Railways Loan of 1911, I have the honor to enclose a letter of February 8, 1930, addressed to Mr. Sun Fo, the Minister of Railways, by the Hukuang Railways Loan Group Banks,33 in which the Group Banks express the hope, in view of the report that likin is to be abolished, “that the National Government may now see its way to give full effect to the provision of Article IX of the Hukuang loan agreement and to transfer that important international obligation to the care of the Customs Administration.” Likewise enclosed is a translation of a note reported to have been addressed to the Ministry of Finance by Mr. Sun Fo on March 3, 1930,33 referring to the letter from the Group Banks. The text of the note, in Chinese, was given privately to the Consul at Nanking by an official of the Ministry of Railways.
Mr. Sun Fo, in his note to the Ministry of Finance, suggests that, in compliance with the provisions of the Hukuang Railways Loan Agreement, the annual appropriation of 4,250,000 Haikwan Taels from the likin charges of Hupeh and Hunan be replaced by Customs revenue, in order to pay the principal and interest of the loan. Mr. Sun Fo also suggests that the original and supplementary Tientsin-Pukow Railway Loans be secured on the Customs revenue after the abolition of likin, “in order to conform to the original agreements and manifest national good faith.”
I have [etc.]