893.102 Tientsin/363: Telegram
The Consul General at Tientsin (Caldwell) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10 p.m.]
151. Yesterday the Japanese Consul General called upon me on his own initiative and discussed the inconveniences being suffered by Americans and American interests as a result of the present barrier restrictions, which, he again assured me, he is desirous of reducing as much as possible.
I informed him that I still consider that Americans should not be required to pass through the searching houses to the barriers, and that I hoped that it would be possible for arrangements to be made which would enable Americans, upon establishing their identity and nationality by means of passports or identification cards issued by the officials of their own Government to have the same freedom of passage at the barriers as is now accorded to the officials and the few civilians who have obtained special Japanese military passes; but that owing to the instructions issued to the Japanese sentries and to their attitude, [Page 223] of which I am appreciative, and to the patience and considerate attitude of the Americans, of which I hoped that he was not unappreciative, there had been, so far as I was informed, no case of discourteous treatment of an American at a barrier since June 21st.
I explained to the Japanese Consul General, however, that the American business community is experiencing numerous inconveniences, some of them of serious importance which it should be possible to remove or at least to ameliorate. These difficulties and inconveniences were discussed at some length, and this discussion is being followed up by representations regarding specific matters to the appropriate officers of the Japanese Consulate General.
Japanese Consul General inquired regarding adequacy of food supplies, and particularly regarding milk supply, concerning which I had communicated informally with him a few days ago. I informed him that, although full supplies were not coming into the British Concession, so far as I was aware the principal inconvenience to Americans resulting from such shortage as existed was in the greatly increased prices; and that apparently from yesterday, delivery of milk in the British Concession had been resumed, though whether in normal quantities I was not informed.
Repeated to Chungking, Peiping, Shanghai. Air mail to Tokyo.