893.515/1462: Telegram
The Consul at Tsingtao (Sokobin) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 2—5:40 a.m.]
206. 1. This Consulate has just despatched to the local Japanese Consul General a letter reading as follows:
“I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter General No. 89 of October 30th, 1939 in which you request that this Consulate instruct the American firms, Standard Vacuum Oil Company, Zimmerman Company and the Robert Dollar Company, which are stated to have had transactions in old legal tender with the local British banks, to discontinue such transactions.
“In reply I have the honor to state that this Consulate is unable to comply with your request. This Consulate can in no way admit that the transactions of American citizens or companies in old legal tender are illegal and it takes this opportunity of stating that any interferences with American citizens or firms in respect to the currency with which they conduct their business in Tsingtao would be entirely unwarrantable and would be regarded an arbitrary infringement on American rights and interests.”
2. The British Consul General has received a similar letter dealing with British firms.
Repeated to Peiping and to Chungking; true reading by air mail to Tokyo.