693.113 (Manchuria) Petroleum/34: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Bingham)
92. Please state orally and informally to the Foreign Office as follows:
(a) In October last the Department instructed consular officers in Manchuria to make suitable representations to Manchukuo Customs and other local authorities against the practice of Manchukuo Customs of admitting Japanese illuminating oil under a lower rate of duty than that levied upon American kerosene. Such representations proving ineffectual, the American Consul General at Mukden was instructed to discuss the matter with the Japanese Embassy to Manchukuo.
(b) The discrimination complained of is still being practiced, the Manchukuo authorities affirming that the use of any test other than the present “burning test” for determining the illuminating property of oils offered for importation would be impracticable and that suitable revision of the tariff would have to await a general revision of the entire tariff schedule, which would not be made for about 18 months.
(c) We are informed that British consular officers have been making similar representations, and therefore we assume that the British Government shares the view that the practice under reference of the Manchukuo Customs is discriminatory and that it cannot be reconciled with the repeated assurances of the Japanese Government that the open door would be maintained in Manchuria.
If such assumption is correct, the American Government would be glad to receive at as early a date as may be convenient an indication of the British Government’s view with regard to the possibility of similar representations in the premises being made simultaneously by the American and British Governments, through their respective Ambassadors in Tokyo, to the Japanese Government.