Foreign Relations of the United States, 1946, The Far East: China, Volume X

893.516/6–1446

Mr. Thomas W. Lamont to the Secretary of State

New York, June 14, 1946.

Sir: We beg to refer to the recent interchange of correspondence with regard to the China Consortium, specifically the undersigned’s letter of November 19, 1945, together with its accompanying memorandum, and the acknowledgments from the Department under dates of January 5 and January 28, 1946.

Subsequent to the receipt of the views expressed by the Department, we communicated with Morgan Grenfell & Co. Limited, pointing out that as The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation had been acting as central clearing agency for the Consortium, its counsel would be the natural source of legal advice in the operation of the main agreement.

We have just received from The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation a letter which, as it takes a clear position regarding the effect of the outbreak of war with Japan on the provisions of the agreement, may be of interest to the Department. We therefore enclose a copy of such letter together with a copy of our answer.¹⁴ You will note that we are requesting The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation to advise us as to the terms of the letter to be sent to the Chinese Government and the procedure for presentation of such letter.

The members of the Managing Committee of the American Group have approved the termination of the Consortium, or, as an alternative, the withdrawal of the American Group. Upon receiving word as to the dissolution of the Consortium we plan to advise the 32 members of the Group and obtain their confirmation of the dissolution of the American Group.

Respectfully,

Thomas W. Lamont

14. Dated May 28 and June 14; neither printed.