893.5151/604a: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Tientsin (Caldwell)
Washington, June 2,
1939—5 p.m.
29. The Department would appreciate an early report by naval radio in regard to the following:
- (1)
- The extent to which American and other foreign banks have maintained a common front in refusing to purchase from exporters and sell to the so-called Federal Reserve Bank at the official rate export bills drawn on commodities subject to the exchange and trade control measures which went into effect in north China on March 11.
- (2)
- Whether the position of American and other foreign banks in this matter has had or in the future may be expected to have an important or controlling influence upon the position adopted by important American and other foreign trading interests or whether those interests have conducted or may be expected in the future to conduct their business through Japanese banks.
- (3)
- Is continued maintenance of a position of non-cooperation by foreign banks likely, in the opinion of foreign business and banking interests in Tientsin, to cause a modification of the trade and exchange control measures and an alteration in the value of the new currency.
Please endeavor to elicit the foregoing information without disclosing the fact that it is desired by the Department.
Repeated to Peiping and Chungking.
Hull