693.002 Manchuria/159
Memorandum by the Counselor of the Embassy in Great Britain (Atherton) of a Trans-Atlantic Telephone Conversation With the Under Secretary of State (Castle) on June 27, 193281
I learn from the Foreign Office that following my call this morning the Foreign Secretary reviewed the position which the British Government has thus far taken, namely, that protests to the Japanese Government against the acts of the Manchurian régime with regard to the Customs and other administration would be countered with the reply that the British Government “was knocking at the wrong door.” The Foreign Secretary today came to the conclusion that the refusal of the Japanese Commissioner of the Maritime Customs at Dairen to remit customs collections to Shanghai at the instigation of the Chief of the Foreign Section of the Kwantung Government, offered an occasion for representations at Tokyo which could not be met with a disavowal of knowledge or of responsibility. Sir John Simon was, therefore, instructing this afternoon the British Ambassador at Tokyo (1) to express the “surprise and concern” of the British Government over the alleged Dairen incident, and to ask whether or not the report were true. (2) Ambassador Lindley was further instructed to express the hope on behalf of his Government that the Japanese Government would not countenance any action which would violate treaty provisions or prejudice the integrity of the Customs Administration. (3) Lindley was also to point out that the Customs revenue was security for certain foreign obligations of the Chinese Government, and (4) to express the viewpoint that the action of the Japanese authorities at Dairen is not calculated to promote the solution of a problem which all the interested Powers are anxious to have settled.
The Foreign Office added that Sir John considered it desirable to have the collaboration of the French and the Italian Governments, and that the telegram to Lindley was being repeated to Paris and Rome. It was also being sent to Washington with instructions to bring it to the Department’s immediate attention possibly to-night.82
[Page 116]The Foreign Office explained that Sir John thought if anything was to be done it should be done without delay. The Chinese Government, according to a telegram received this afternoon from the British Chargé at Peking, had consistently refused to accept the Japanese proposal that the individual customs houses in Manchuria should remit to Shanghai a proportion for the servicing of the Chinese debt and pay the remainder to the Manchurian régime as that would contravene the Sino-Japanese Agreement of 1907. On the other hand the Chinese Government had made the counter-proposal that the Dairen Customs house should remit its entire collections to Shanghai, while the other Customs Houses should pay in their entire collections to the Manchurian régime. The Foreign Office thought that the Chinese plan would have the effect of dividing the total collections of Manchuria into about two equal halves, but was fearful that the proposal had been made too late.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Ambassador in Great Britain in his despatch No. 178, June 28, 1932; received July 7.↩
- A memorandum of June 28 by the Under Secretary of State records that the British Ambassador called but “added nothing whatever to what Atherton had said over the telephone except the further fact, which the Department already knew, that some time ago the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs had said vigorously to Lindley that Japan had no intention of interfering in any way with the customs administration in Manchuria.” (693.002 Manchuria/150)↩