693.062/617: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Salisbury) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 27—7 a.m.]
260. 1. An officer of the Embassy has been informed by the Italian Commissioner of Customs at Chinwangtao that the so-called situation in that area has been “liquidated” through the payment made by customs to persons unnamed (presumably Japanese military) of Chinese dollars 50,000 and that Chinwangtao and Shanhaikwan revenues together now approximate Chinese dollars 400,000 monthly as against one fourth that sum when smuggling was rife. According to the Commissioner, none of this revenue goes to the Peiping régime but is deposited in and held by the Yokohama Specie Bank.
2. The Commissioner states also that the Japanese now permit his officers to carry arms and customs cruisers and wall stations to have machine guns.
3. Repeated to Hankow and Shanghai.