693.002/497: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 8—5:41 p.m.]
223. Japanese Consul General today sent a letter to the Commissioner of Customs asking him to arrange to deposit customs revenues in the Yokohama Specie Bank and stating that “the Japanese authorities will not allow any amount of money to be transferred without” their authorization from revenue accounts now in other banks except funds for defraying the Shanghai customs expenses. The letter, which is in poor English, then goes on to say that the Japanese authorities have no intention of having withheld from foreign loan and indemnity services such payments from the revenue accounts which they, the Japanese authorities, agree are reasonably allotted from the Shanghai customs. The letter as interpreted or explained by the Consul General’s representative does not preclude withdrawal of funds for foreign loan and indemnity services from revenues now in the British bank but makes such withdrawal subject to authorization by the Japanese authorities who will consider whether it represents a reasonable allotment from the Shanghai revenue.
Repeated to Tokyo, Hankow and Peiping.