693.94244/186
The Consul at Tientsin (Berger) to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)5
Sir: I have the honor to refer to this Consulate General’s weekly despatches concerning current developments in the smuggling situation in this area and to state that I have received information, through what I believe to be absolutely reliable channels, from the Japanese Military Headquarters in Tientsin that these Headquarters have been, and still are, engaged in the duty free importation of passenger automobiles and motor trucks in considerable numbers, which vehicles are not intended for the immediate use of the Japanese military. About two hundred and fifty cars have already been brought in under Japanese military huchaos and huchaos to cover the importation of an additional one hundred passenger cars and five hundred truck chassis have been issued during the past week.
The Japanese military, in return for the issuance of the huchaos, require that the importer (who needless to say must be a Japanese subject or firm) build bodies on the truck chassis according to the specifications of the military and also require that both trucks and passenger cars be made available for use by the Japanese military in an emergency.
Aside from the patent rascality of the whole scheme, the pertinent points are that Japanese operators of motor vehicles in North China are being subsidized at the expense of the Chinese Government, which government is also assisting in providing the Japanese military with transportation.
I have also received information from what I believe to be a reliable source, that the South Manchurian Railway recently forwarded two hundred Japanese Toyoda motor trucks through Tientsin to Kalgan under huchao issued by the local Japanese military, which trucks were turned over to the bandits for use in their operations against Suiyuan.
Respectfully yours,
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Consul at Tientsin in his unnumbered despatch of December 16; received January 11, 1937.↩