893.113/1422
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck) of a Conversation With the Former Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs (Lee)29
Mr. Hornbeck took advantage of the opportunity afforded by references on Mr. Lee’s part to increasing disposition of the Chinese to unite in resistance to Japan to observe that the general disposition of the Cantonese to stand off from Nanking was a source of weakness to China and causes unnecessary difficulty to other countries in their official relations with China: to illustrate, the refusal of the Cantonese to ask approval of Nanking in connection with imports of munitions, particularly aircraft, is occasioning embarrassment to this Department in connection with the question of export trade in airplanes destined to China. In the presence of that situation, we, under our procedure, are unable to issue export licenses for shipment of various items sought to be purchased by Canton; at the same time other countries are permitting comparable items to go to Canton without the approval of Nanking; the net result is that our export trade in the commodities in question is in fact discriminated against. After some discussion of the ins and outs of this question, Mr. Lee said that he thought that Canton could be persuaded to make its attitude and position with regard to that question regular. He said that he would take the question up both with Canton and with Nanking.
- Dr. Chinglun Frank W. Lee, then attached to the Chinese Legation.↩