893.102 Kulangsu/188: Telegram
The Consul at Amoy (MacVitty) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 6—8:30 a.m.]
66. Yesterday afternoon the Japanese Consul General called on me with regard to the latest demands on the Municipal Council (reported [Page 131] in my telegram No. 64, July 2, noon). Mr. Uchida asked that I support these measures as he stated “the relations of the United States with Japan are very friendly and I am sure the United States Government would have no objection to your informing the American member of the Council and the American ratepayers that the Japanese demands must be accepted.” Later in the conversation he informed me that should the new position not be agreed to the authorities at Amoy would be “very angry”. I told him that he should wait for the regular ratepayers meeting in January to ask for an inspector and 10 additional Formosan police as, due to the Japanese interference with fuel and food supplies, the Municipal Government had had to use what few surplus funds they had to import fuel from great distances and to dispose of it at below cost so that it could be made available to the poor who constitute the majority of the population of Kulangsu. It was also pointed out that owing to this situation and the depreciation of Chinese National currency the Municipal Council would probably enter the New Year with a deficit rather than a surplus. In conclusion I said that he had evidently lost sight of the fact that it was the Japanese who created this situation. As he departed he asked that I take the matter of his request for my assistance under consideration and stated that if the demands were not granted the situation might become more difficult.
Repeated to Embassy [at] Chungking, Consul General at Shanghai.