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  4. Document 945

893.113.1305

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck) of a Conversation With the Counselor of the British Embassy (Campbell)

[ Washington ,] June 12, 1931.

Mr. Hornbeck, with Mr. Castle’s3 approval, called Mr. Campbell on the phone and stated that we had observed in news reports and we had been informed from other sources that the British authorities at Hong Kong are holding up certain shipments of arms billed to Canton, in the absence of notification from the Chinese (Nanking) Government that that Government desires that the shipments be permitted to be exported, for import into China. Mr. Hornbeck said that this leads us to infer that the attitude of the British Government is identical with that of the American Government, and our practice the same: we are, as we have done for the past two years, insisting on notification that the Chinese (Nanking) Government desires the export, before we approve application for license to export. Mr. Campbell said that he understood and that his Government would be interested to have the information.4

S[tanley] K. H[ornbeck]
  1. William R. Castle, Jr., Under Secretary of State.↩
  2. Marginal notation by the Under Secretary of State reads: “I said the same thing to the Ambassador when he called. WRC jr.”↩