Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1945, The Far East, China, Volume VII

893.5034 Registration/5–1845

The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Hurley)

No. 144

Washington, May 25, 1945.

The Acting Secretary of State transmits for the information of the Embassy, a copy of a letter received from the Washington representative of the China–America Council of Commerce and Industry, Inc., together with the related letter from Mr. Blackwell Smith mentioned therein.²⁴

The Embassy will note that the China–America Council is desirous of obtaining official confirmation of the four points enumerated in Mr. Blackwell Smith’s letter.²⁵ The Department wishes to emphasize, however, that even though official confirmation should be forthcoming from the Chinese authorities, the Embassy should nevertheless continue to be guided by the Department’s no. 740 of May 17, 1945 instructing the Embassy to press both the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Economic Affairs for the early promulgation of simple and reasonable registration regulations which it is believed would be more satisfactory than to predicate a question of such importance upon an official explanation of the present ambiguous regulations.

This matter is also being discussed with Dr. T. V. Soong in Washington, in an endeavor to impress upon him and the appropriate Chinese authorities the importance attached by the Department to an early and satisfactory solution of this problem.

24. Neither printed; Mr. Smith was Vice President and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Council.
25. The four points dealt with definition of foreign corporations, registration of branches, consular certification of registration statements, and denial of registration.