800.503193/16
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 24.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 2881 of July 31, 1934, with regard to the recently organized China Development Finance Corporation and to report that, during a conversation on August 13, 1934, with a member of my staff, an official of the Bureau of Asiatic Affairs of the Japanese Foreign Office, Mr. Hagiwara, made some comments in this regard.
[Page 408]Mr. Hagiwara stated that the China Development Finance Corporation had a League of Nations background which did not enhance it in Japanese eyes. Describing this, he explained that the League of Nations had contemplated three or four years ago the creation of a subsidiary organ which was to have as its primary interest the directing of financing of projects in China. This plan was abandoned before realization. However, when Mr. T. V. Soong, as Minister of Finance, visited the United States and Europe in 1933 he discussed with Western financiers the desirability of organizing a committee of leading foreign financiers, exclusive of Japanese, to plan and undertake foreign investments in China and to act at the same time in an advisory capacity to the Chinese Government. In both these plans, Mr. Hagiwara stated, League personages figured prominently. In the first instance, naturally, the members of the League’s subsidiary organ would have been League personnel, while the second project had been recommended to Mr. Soong by Mr. Jean Monnet, formerly connected with the League of Nations. The third and accomplished project, the China Development Finance Corporation, is the result primarily of the efforts of Mr. Monnet, formerly of the League, and is an outgrowth of the first two plans, and therefore has a League complexion although it has no actual connection with the League. (Mr. Hagiwara said that details had been given to Ambassador Matsudaira87 by Mr. Thomas Lamont.)
Mr. Hagiwara went on to say that the Japanese were not inclined to view the new organization favorably because of another factor, namely that it has a political character as a result of inclusion in its membership of such men as Dr. H. H. Kung, the Minister of Finance, and Mr. T. V. Soong, executive member of the National Economic Council. Were it a purely non-political organization, it would be considerably more acceptable to the Japanese. Mr. Hagiwara concluded his remarks with the statement that the Japanese did not believe that the new organization would accomplish much of anything.
Respectfully yours,
- Tsuneo Matsudaira, Japanese Ambassador in Great Britain.↩