893.51/6789: Telegram
The Chargé in China ( Peck ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11 a.m.]
54. Embassy’s 30, January 16, 3 [1] p.m. On January 26 the British Diplomatic Mission in Chungking handed the Embassy the text of a note dated January 25 addressed to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs46 in regard to the service of foreign loans which reads as follows:
“British Diplomatic Mission, Chungking, January 25th, 1939.
Your Excellency: With reference to Your Excellency’s note of the 15th January, addressed to H. M. Ambassador to China, and enclosing a memorandum on the subject of the service of foreign loans, I have the honor, on instructions from Sir Archibald Clark-Kerr, to inform Your Excellency that he notes the hope expressed therein that remittances may be forthcoming from the areas under Japanese occupation.
In the opinion, however, of His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom the best machinery for assuring the uninterrupted service of the foreign loans secured on the Chinese customs is that provided for in the Anglo-Japanese customs agreement.47
His Majesty’s Government would therefore urge that serious consideration be given by the Chinese Government to the question of authorizing the Inspector General of Customs to dispose of all customs revenue and to administer the service in the way which he judges best calculated to serve the interests of the Chinese Government and of all others concerned.
I avail myself, et cetera.
(Signed) J. D. Greenway.48”
Repeated to Peiping, Shanghai; Peiping please send by air mail to Tokyo.
- Wang Chung-hui.↩
- Dated May 2, 1938; see telegram No. 289, May 2, 1938, midnight, Foreign Relations, 1938, vol. iii, p. 692.↩
- First Secretary of the British Embassy in China.↩