693.94244/27: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
149. Department’s 34, May 20, 5 p.m.
1. The note, dated May 15, would lose character by being summarized. Translation as furnished the press by the Foreign Office is as follows:
2. “In regard to the unwarranted interference to which the Customs Preventive Service has been subjected by the Japanese military at Chinwangtao and the protection afforded to the Japanese and Korean smugglers, the Waichiaopu has had the honor of addressing to you several notes of protest, to which, however, no satisfactory reply has hitherto been received from the Japanese Government. I wish now to reiterate that in taking appropriate measures to prevent smuggling the Chinese Maritime Customs are exercising function inherent in their [Page 164] duties of safeguarding the integrity of the state revenue and that the exercise of such powers of prevention admits no interference from any source.
As clearly pointed out in the previous notes, in which the Waichiaopu requested the Japanese Government to take effective steps to restrain their military authorities from further unwarranted and illegal interference with the preventive functions of the Chinese Customs, there is no reference in the Tangku Agreement92 to the question of armed customs vessels, nor can any article of the said agreement be construed as imposing any restrictions on the anti-smuggling activities of armed customs patrols or preventive vessels.”
3. Section 2 follows.
4. “The repeated requests made by the Chinese Government on the ground of China’s sovereign rights and for the protection of legitimate trade interests, both Chinese and foreign, nave, however, been ignored by the Japanese Government with the result that smuggling has increased to the extent of impairing the integrity of the Chinese national revenue.
According to information received by the Foreign Office, Japanese and Korean smugglers, taking advantage of the serious impairment of the efficacy of the Customs Preventive Service in consequence of Japanese interference, have during recent months engaged in large scale smuggling by sea. A large number of junks and motor driven vessels, some as large as 500 tons, have been employed for smuggling along the coast from Lutai to Chinwangtao, while the landing and transportation of smuggled goods have been carried on without the fear of seizure by the customs. By means of the railways illicit goods have been shipped southward and dumped on the various markets.
As regards the smuggling situation on land, immense quantities of smuggled goods from Chinwangtao have been brought to Tientsin and various places in the interior via Peiping–Liaoning Railway, and a large percentage of these goods have also reached the southern ports via the Tientsin–Pukow Railway. At Shanhaikwan and other places the audacity of armed Japanese and Korean smugglers has been amazing, numerous cases having occurred in which customs officers were attacked with impunity and goods already seized by the customs were recovered by force. As a result of such smuggling, it is estimated that the loss of revenue suffered by the maritime customs from last August to April this year amounted to over 25 million dollars, while the figure for the month of April alone was no less than 8 million dollars, thus indicating the rapid deteriorating of the position.”
5. Section 3 follows.
6. [“]The unprecedented seriousness of the situation has been the cause of grave concern to Chinese and foreign traders, as well as far-sighted observers in Japan. As failure to take immediate steps to curb such illegal activities would result in further increase of smuggling, with the consequences of reducing the revenue of the Chinese customs and impairing the national finances of China, the Chinese [Page 165] Government is constrained to lodge a further protest with the Japanese Government.
I, therefore, ask you to be good enough to transmit to your Government the above views with the request that immediate steps be taken to restrain the Japanese military authorities from further interference with the preventive functions of the customs and to withdraw the protection hitherto enjoyed by Japanese and Korean smugglers. I further request that such smuggling concerns as the ‘Shih Ho Transportation Company’ mentioned in the previous notes of protest be immediately dissolved and that other prompt measures be taken for the effective suppression of Japanese and Korean smugglers at Chinwangtao and other places”.
7. To Peiping by mail. Copy of translation sent to Peiping and Tokyo with copy of this office’s despatch to Department, No. 165, May 20.93
- Telegram in three sections.↩
- Signed May 31, 1933; Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 120.↩
- Not printed.↩