893.51 Salt Funds/118
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Castle)
The British Ambassador said that, in talking with the Secretary the other day about possible representations in connection with the infringement of the administrative integrity of Manchuria, he had stated that he thought the matter was progressing, especially in relation to a protest concerning the salt gabelle. Pie said that perhaps he had given undue emphasis to this because he had just received a telegram saying that Sir John Simon was waiting for a message from the Secretary on the subject. He said that, at the end of Sir John’s letter to the Secretary, Sir John had remarked that he would wait for further information from Washington. I said there was evidently some misunderstanding about this because we had the impression that the British were going to tell us in detail what they thought might be done in connection with the salt gabelle. I said that we had been waiting for that because we felt that probably when a move was made, even though the salt gabelle might be the best single issue on which to move, it might be well to include other matters, such as the customs or the post office situation, but that we wanted British arguments as to why this might be unwise. I told the Ambassador also that the Secretary yesterday sent a telegram to Mr. Mellon,33 instructing him to take the matter up with Sir John Simon. The Ambassador was delighted at this because he said that would break the jam and would enable us more quickly to discuss the whole matter.
- Not printed.↩