693.001/363: Telegram
The Consul General at Hong Kong (Southard) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 26—11:30 a.m.]
4. I have asked my Japanese colleague whether negotiations have yet been started with the Hong Kong authorities to reopen trade and other communication with Canton and he replied in the negative. His very confidential opinion is that traffic will not be permitted to resume so long as the area concerned has the status of “a zone of military operation” and is not prepared to estimate how long that may be. He expressed the further very confidential opinion that it would be more practical for the Hong Kong authorities to negotiate in such matters with him rather than via the British Embassy in Tokyo and is prepared to enter into such negotiations if and when approached. My deduction is that he has had preliminary instructions from Tokyo although he did not say that. My colleague states also that he had had a preliminary conversation with the Resident Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Customs (A. E. Pritchard) about Kowloon customs collections and this was confirmed to me in an independent conversation with the Commissioner. My colleague told me his staff here was being increased in anticipation of the above indicated and other additional duties. In his confidential opinion the persistent local rumors of an offer of German and British mediation in the present conflict have no foundation of fact. The British Ambassador to China who left here last night on a British war vessel for Haiphong en route to Chungking denied to local questioners that he was carrying or concerned with a mediation offer.
Repeated to Canton, Chungking, Peiping.