693.002/369
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Aide-Mémoire
The receipt is acknowledged of the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of September 15, 1937,90 stating, with reference to reports that the principal Chinese Customs house on the border of the Kowloon Leased Territory has been captured by the Japanese, that the British Embassy in Tokyo has again been instructed to draw the attention of the Japanese Government to the importance which the British Government attaches to the preservation of the Chinese Customs Administration.
In reply to the British Government’s inquiry contained in the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of September 6, 1937,90 and in its aide-mémoire under acknowledgment, with regard to parallel action by the American Government, this Government has authorized its Ambassador in Tokyo to consult with his British colleague and, in his discretion, to inform the Japanese Government of the American Government’s interest in the preservation of the administrative integrity of the Chinese Maritime Customs and of the Chinese Salt Administration and of its interest in the safeguarding of the revenues of those administrations. In making his approach, the American Ambassador is being instructed to invite the attention of the Japanese Government to reports of Japanese military action directed against the Chinese Customs houses on the coast of Kwangtung Province, with special reference to the attack on the Customs house at Taishan, and to reports of measures contemplated by the Japanese with regard to the Customs and Salt administrations at Tientsin.