893.51 Con-Ob Continental/135
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck) of a Conversation With the Vice President of the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company (Abbott)
Mr. Abbott called me on the telephone from Chicago. He said that he had been present at a meeting of representatives of interested banks, in New York, on May 14, presided over by Mr. Thomas Lamont, in discussion of the China Consortium and financial indebtedness of the Chinese Government. In consequence of the discussion then held, together with discussion with his associates in Chicago, he had decided to ask the help of the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council in relation to the Chicago Bank Loan. He had just now talked with the Chinese Ambassador, by telephone, and had told the Ambassador that he and his associates were not satisfied with the offer made by the Chinese Government for an adjustment of the Chicago Bank Loan contract, and that this matter would be taken up by the Foreign Bondholders Protective Council. Pie wanted the Department to know of this. His next move would be to inform Mr. Reuben Clark99 and Mr. Francis White.1