893.113/1423½
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Castle) of a Conversation With the British Ambassador (Lindsay)
I brought up with Sir Ronald Lindsay the question of the shipment of war planes from Hong Kong to Canton. I told him that I entirely realized the difficulty of the British situation in Hong Kong where if they did not play up to the Cantonese, the Cantonese had every opportunity for reprisal. The Ambassador said that he thought his Government was exceedingly strict about the shipment of any arms or munitions, including fighting planes, into China without the permission of the Nanking Government, and that if there had been any slip he was sure that it was not intentional. I told him that I knew of only one shipment of three pursuit planes of a purely war type which had recently gone from Hong Kong to Canton without any previous Nanking license. He said that he would have the matter looked up, as he was sure it would be very disagreeable to his Government. He asked if we had had a protest from Nanking about it. I said that we certainly had not, as I had no reason to think the Nanking Government knew anything about it.
He asked what the relations were now between Nanking and Canton, and I told him that on the surface at least they were very friendly; that if this were the case Nanking might prove its friendliness by promptly issuing such licenses as were asked for by the Cantonese. I told him that in the matter of airplanes at least, if the British Government felt that it could not maintain its restrictions it would seem almost necessary to open the field generally. He said he was sure that the British Government would not approve of any such measure and that on the other hand it would be grateful for the tip I had given them because it thoroughly disapproved of supplying arms of any kind to the different factions in China.