Office of the Historian

393.115 Standard Vacuum Oil Co./73: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart)

Washington, October 25, 1938—7 p.m.

291. Tsingtao’s October 19, 10 a.m.,26 discharge of bulk gasoline and kerosene by Standard Vacuum Oil Company. Please endeavor through an approach to the Japanese Embassy to obtain the permission requested by the Company and instruct Tsingtao to continue its efforts to that end. Point out that the Japanese statement that the harbor is “still under military and naval control and not yet open for full commercial use” is, in the circumstances, incomprehensible and unacceptable and that this interference with American trade is wholly unwarranted.

Repeated to Chungking. Peiping mail to Tokyo.

Hull
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