Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1939, The Far East; The Near East and Africa, Volume IV

893.102 Kulangsu/148: Telegram

The Consul at Amoy (MacVitty) to the Secretary of State

Amoy, May 24, 1939—9 a.m.
[Received May 24—7 a.m.]

35. Yesterday evening the Japanese Consul General in reply to the Municipal Council’s protest of May 17 stated:

(1) He demands strict suppression of anti-Japanese elements in the Settlement.

(2) Kulangsu being a part of Amoy it cannot exist as an isolated island, he therefore insists that the Chief of Police and Secretary of the Council be replaced by a Japanese and that a prompt increase be made in the number of Japanese police.

(3) As Formosans became Japanese subjects by the Sino-Japanese treaty of 1895⁵ they are not Chinese and are qualified to vote and be elected as councilors, “this question requires no change in the land regulations”.

(4) That Chinese seats on the Council be filled by appointees of the Chairman of the Peace Maintenance Committee of Amoy (the puppet government).

(5) Thorough cooperation between Japanese consular police and municipal police in searches and arrests of anti-Japanese reactionaries in the International Settlement. There will be a meeting of consular officers and ranking naval officers to consider the Japanese Consul’s demands this morning at 11.

Repeated to Peiping, Chungking and Shanghai.

MacVitty

5. Signed at Shimonoseki, April 17, 1895; J. V. A. MacMurray (ed.), Treaties and Agreements With and Concerning China, 1894–1919 (New York, 1921), vol. i, p. 18.