861.77 Chinese Eastern (Loan) 1932/2: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in France (Armour)
215. Your 314, May 13, 1 p.m.47 Associated Press report from Tokyo under date June 6, states:
“French bankers are willing to lend several million francs to the newly constituted Manchurian state of Manchoukuo, it was learned today. Alfred Massenet, director of the Franco-Asiatic Bank, is here as representative of a group of French financial houses that would participate in the loan.
A requisite to the transaction, M. Massenet said, would be recognition by Soviet Russia and Manchoukuo of a certain portion of the claims of French investors who, through the Czarist government and the Russo-Asiatic Bank, supplied funds used to build the Chinese [Page 68] Eastern Railway. He was willing to settle on a realistic basis, he said.
The new loan would be earmarked for renewing tracks and rolling stock of the Chinese Eastern, which has been jointly operated by China and Russia. Manchoukuo now claims the Chinese share of control.”
Please bring this report to the attention of the appropriate French authorities and state that I should welcome their comments. You may point out that it is obvious that any foreign loan obtained by the present régime in Manchuria at this time would assist toward consolidation of the situation in Manchuria which this Government and the League have declared we would not recognize as valid.
- Not printed.↩