811.7493 Globe Wireless/36: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai ( Gauss ) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 2—8 a.m.]
1. Reference No. 1488, December 22 [21], 11 a.m.,62 regarding Globe Wireless Company.
1. Following letter dated December 31 has been received from the Japanese Acting Consul General:
“With reference to the conversations which Mr. Hidaka63 and I had with you regarding an American firm in the International Settlement, known as the Globe Wireless Company, which is operating wireless transmission to Manila and America, I now have the honor to lodge a formal protest against the operation of the said firm.
The Japanese forces have made it clear on several occasions since their occupation of this part of China in November last year, that they cannot allow the existence and functioning of any organ of the Nationalist Government in the International Settlement or in the French Concession. The Japanese forces can not sanction the operation of the said Globe Wireless Company, which is reported to have recently been inaugurated under the authorization of the Nationalist Government.
It may be recalled that wireless communication for the use of the general public was a national enterprise of the Chinese Government, [Page 263] which pursued the established practice of not allowing it to be operated by a private enterprise, either domestic or foreign. The reported concession made by the Nationalist Government to the Globe Wireless Company is in obvious contradiction to the above practice, and moreover the Nationalist Government has no authority to sanction the operation of the enterprise within the district where the Government has ceased to function for more than a year.
In these circumstances, I shall be grateful if you will be good enough to see that the wireless operation of the said firm is closed at once. (Signed) I. Goto, Acting Consul General”.
2. I am informing Shanghai representative of Globe Wireless of the purport of the Japanese protest but I shall make no acknowledgment or reply to the Japanese Consul General until instructed by the Department.
3. From statements made to me recently by the representative of Globe Wireless, I am led to believe that the answer of the Globe Company to a Japanese protest such as has now been made will be to protest to the Federal Communications Commission that the former Chinese Government radio station at Shanghai which the Japanese are now operating and which continued to respect the traffic agreements of Radio Corporation of America and the Mackay Radio and Telegraph Company is using radio frequencies which belong to the Chinese Government while the Shanghai station is being operated by a Japanese organized company known as the Central China Telecommunications Company which of course is not recognized by the Chinese Government.
4. I have been informed indirectly that Press Wireless Incorporated, another American company which has been seeking to enter the China field, proposes soon to establish a press wireless service at Shanghai, probably operating through Manila. A representative of this company consulted me several months ago in this matter saying that the Chinese Government had indicated its willingness to enter into an agreement, giving the desired permission. I advised this representative, as I had advised Globe Wireless, that the establishment of their stations would likely meet with determined opposition from the Japanese. I was led to believe that the proposal would be dropped but understand that when the Globe Company established its station, the Press Wireless Company decided also to enter the field.
Like the Globe Wireless, it proposes to establish its station in the United States Marines sector of the International Settlement.
5. I request early instructions as to the reply to be made to the Japanese Consul General.
Repeated to Peiping and Chungking.