893.5151 Manchuria/23: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 1—1:52 p.m.]
796. Department’s telegram No. 333, October 19, 3 p.m. Harbin reports by despatch that the list of prohibited merchandise has not [Page 945] been published there but that large British importing firm has been informed confidentially by official in Hsinking that the Japanese prohibited list was being used in administering the Manchurian law at present and that some firms [articles for which] foreign exchange and import permits are now being refused might be allowed and vice versa. Efforts to obtain a copy of the prohibitive list for Manchuria from the local administrator of the law have proved unsuccessful. A partial list of merchandise ordinarily imported in at least moderate quantities from the United States and for which exchange and import permits are now being refused includes cotton manufactures, wool and manufactures thereof, silk and manufactures thereof, radio sets and parts, canned goods and groceries, fruits, seeds and vegetables, old newspapers, photographic apparatus and materials, perfumery and cosmetics and rubber goods including motor tires.
It is also stated that permits may be refused for other than low-priced motor vehicles.
Except for Japanese merchandise, which may be imported without restriction, permits have been refused for merchandise on the prohibited list regardless of the country of origin. Import and foreign exchange permits have been granted for agricultural machinery, implements, and parts from the United States, [un] manufactured leather, cue [fur] scrap and leaf tobacco.
Harbin also reports that it is evident that if hostilities in China are prolonged the foreign exchange and import regulations in Manchuria will be made more severe and more commodities may be added to the prohibited list.
Copy of despatch on which above is based was mailed to Tokyo. By mail to Hankow.