893.515/935: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Davis) to the Secretary of State
Shanghai, December 18, 1935—2
p.m.
[Received 2:20 p.m.]
[Received 2:20 p.m.]
770. Referring to my 734, December 5, 3 p.m.62
- 1.
- Japanese Consular police in Shanghai have recently been very active against silver runners. On December 14th, 140 runners were taken from a Japanese ship about to sail and it is understood that they were compelled to surrender the silver they carried amounting to nearly 250,000 silver dollars to Shanghai Japanese banks in exchange for paper notes of same face value. Editorially commenting on the action of the Consular police the North China Daily News on December 16th states inter alia “The Japanese authorities have indicated no desire to take police court action against the smugglers and although nothing was done on Saturday other than ordering the smugglers to change their money into legal tender this announced determination to act against them should have a corrective effect on a situation which has gradually been growing worse” and the China Press this morning inter alia “A refreshing sign of cooperation which the Chinese have long expected from their Island neighbors” and that smugglers “of Chinese nationality can be easily dealt with according to law but others like the Japanese must be enjoined by their own Consular officials. With the hearty cooperation of the local Japanese a great hinderance to the complete enforcement of the Government policy is done away with and the prospect of its ultimate success is made so much brighter.”
- 2.
- This Consulate General was unofficially informed yesterday by a Japanese Consular officer that about 600 silver runners remain in Shanghai. Some Chinese estimate the number to be at least twice that many. So long as they remain in Shanghai they constitute a [Page 655] potential source of trouble to Japanese officials through becoming destitute or otherwise.
Repeated to Peiping, mail to Nanking.
Davis
- Not printed.↩