611.939/335: Telegram
The Consul at Shanghai (Butrick) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 23—4:22 p.m.]
828. In continuation of my 825, August 23, 1 p.m.10 I consider that the foregoing enumeration of restrictions placed upon the egg business of occidental firms amply justifies the conclusion of the Henningsen Produce Company that it is the intention of the Japanese authorities and interests eventually to eliminate those firms from the trade. Considerable enterprise and adaptability have been displayed by American firms in many instances in their efforts to cope with the restraints placed upon their activities. The inevitability of ultimate failure of such single-handed efforts, however, is foreseen by Henningsen Produce Company which states that they, as an American firm operating in China, can see no way in which Americans out here, individually or collectively, can protect our interests unless our government will take some retaliatory economic measures against the Japanese.
This and other cases of increasing Japanese interference with American commercial interests in China incline me toward the Henningsen opinion. I venture no opinion whether such action would be desirable under the present world conditions.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Chungking, Peiping. Code text to Tokyo by safe hand.
- Not printed; it reported restrictions on the egg trade which was strictly controlled by the Japanese military authorities (611.939/334).↩