93.002/499: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss)
134. Your 235, February 10, 7 p.m. Should the Inspector General of Customs communicate to you the letter outlined in your telegram No. 223, February 8, 6 p.m., the Department desires that, if such communication calls for any response beyond an acknowledgment, you reply that the American Government does not wish to advise the Chinese Maritime Customs administration in regard to the attitude which it should adopt in the matter.
For your information and guidance, the Department gives below the substance of an aide-mémoire which it is handing to the British Embassy here62 in response to the latter’s question whether the United States Government would support a proposal to the Japanese and Chinese Governments that customs funds in areas controlled by the Japanese be deposited in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and that control of those funds be vested in a body of officials nominated by the interested powers.
The Department replied that it would not be in position to take the proposed action but, realizing that the British Government might wish to continue with the proposal, desired to avoid any procedure that would tend to prejudice the British position. The Department stated that it was accordingly instructing the American Ambassador to Japan and you to consult with your British colleagues and, if the latter so desired, to hold in abeyance for the present further approaches to the Japanese authorities; that Mr. Grew and you were being further instructed that in case your British colleagues did not wish a postponement of further American approaches to the Japanese [Page 656] authorities you were authorized, either alone or accompanied by similar but separate action on the part of your British and French diplomatic and consular colleagues, to acquaint the Japanese Government with the fact that you have information in regard to the character of the Japanese proposal made to the Commissioner of Customs at Shanghai for a settlement of the Customs problem; to refer to the assurances which the American Government has already requested of the Japanese Government; and to re-express an earnest and emphatic desire to receive from the Japanese Government positive assurances that no action will be taken or countenanced that will disrupt the Chinese Customs service or jeopardize the servicing of foreign obligations secured on the Customs revenues and that the servicing of such obligations will be considered and treated as first charges on the Customs revenue after the deduction of the costs of maintaining the Chinese Maritime Customs.
The French Embassy here has informally approached the Department in regard to this subject, and you and Tokyo may acquaint your French colleagues with the Department’s position as set forth in this and previous telegrams.
- The Department’s aide-mémoire of February 13 was in reply to the British Embassy’s inquiry of February 9; neither printed.↩