893.796/258: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received 8:20 p.m.]
729. The formation of a Sino-Japanese aviation company, the China Aviation Company, with services projected for Peiping–Shanghai, Shanghai–Hankow, Shanghai–Canton, Peiping-Dairen and Peiping–Tatung, was announced here on December 17th. The capital of the new company is reportedly to be jointly invested by Peiping Provisional, the Nanking Reformed and the Mongolian Autonomous Governments, the Hui Tung and the Japan Air Transport Companies, the capital to be 6 million yen of which the three Governments will contribute only 250,000 each. As the managing director and other high officials as well as a great part of the personnel are to be Japanese and as participation in the investment is said to be small and restricted to the above official bodies, the new company may be considered as a further monopolistic venture on the part of the Japanese envisaged by and within the framework of the North China Development Company. The Hui Tung Company organized in 1936 will be merged into the new company.