693.94244/38: Telegram
The Chargé in Germany (Mayer) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 29—7:42 a.m.]
163. Yesterday the British Counsellor98 spoke to me informally of a recent conversation he had had with the German Foreign Office regarding smuggling in North China. The British Embassy had [Page 174] been instructed by their Government to inform the Foreign Office of their representations in Tokyo on this subject in the hope that Germany would feel disposed to take similar action. The Foreign Office said they would telegraph the German Embassy in Tokyo for a report and on its receipt would discuss the matter further with Newton.
Newton also told me that they had just received a “repeat” from the British Embassy at Tokyo indicating that the Japanese authorities were about to undertake an investigation of the matter.
Newton said that he was not instructed to discuss the matter with me but he knew we were interested and wished to let us know the British action taken here with the idea that possibly our Government would want me to speak with the Foreign Office somewhat similarly. I said I would be glad to report this conversation to you.
Apart from the desirability you may feel from a general political point of view of cooperating with the British in Far Eastern affairs, I feel that it might be useful for me to discuss this matter with the Foreign Office here as affording indirectly an opportunity of testing German-Japanese relations.
- Basil Cochrane Newton, British Minister at Berlin.↩