393.115 Hunt Company, William/25: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Lochhart)
334. Your 671, May 16, 5 p.m.22 While this Government favors normal pursuit and development of international trade and commercial relations in general and to this end follows the principle of affording appropriate and reasonable protection to American rights and interests abroad, it does not look with favor on transactions which [Page 329] may reasonably be viewed as designed in whole or in part to obtain protection of property rights or interests by transferring them from the jurisdiction of a Government engaged in hostilities with another to the Government of the United States.
You may, therefore, inform the inquirer that this Government would not look with favor upon transactions of the type under reference and would be very unsympathetically disposed toward any request, if and when made, for support or protection by it of rights or interests thus acquired.
Please repeat to Peiping and to Ambassador at Hankow.
- Not printed; it referred to the proposed purchase by William Hunt and Company of assets of a Chinese company operating at Tientsin and owning tugboats and lighters. Mr. Hunt had inquired as to the attitude of the Department. (393.115 Hunt Company, William/24)↩