893.52/460: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Lockhart)
Washington, July 24, 1938—1
p.m.
459. Your 1005, July 19, 11 a.m., records of Bureau of Land Administration.
- 1.
- Your paragraph 3. Although the Department does not feel that it is
in position to initiate suggestions for a solution of the problem,
it believes that the following considerations should be borne in
mind:
- (a)
- the land records in question (at least in so far as they relate to land situated in the International Settlement) are of vital concern to the Shanghai Municipal Council;
- (b)
- before the legitimate Chinese authorities were driven out of Shanghai, the Shanghai Municipal Council had no control over the records of the Bureau of Land Administration;
- (c)
- the surrender of the records by the Bureau of Land Administration to the Shanghai Muncipal Council was occasioned by the inability of the legitimate Chinese authorities to continue their functions; and
- (d)
- in retaining control of the records the Shanghai Muncipal Council is undertaking to exercise authority and responsibility which it did not possess prior to the departure of the legitimate Chinese authorities from the Shanghai area.
- 2.
- Bearing the foregoing considerations in mind, the Department feels that it is desirable and defensible in present circumstances for the Municipal Council, supported if necessary by the Consular Body, to make every practicable effort to avoid, through the devising of feasible and acceptable measures for dealing with the matter, the turning over of the records to the Japanese or to an agency sponsored by them.
- 3.
- Please continue to keep the Department informed of developments in the matter.
Repeat by naval radio to Hankow and by mail to Peiping and Tokyo.
Hull