793.94/8029: Telegram
The Consul General at Canton (Spiker) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 4—1:30 p.m.]
Have just been separately approached by local authorities and by the special delegate for Foreign Affairs with blustering effort to hold Dollar Steamship Company responsible for refusal to transport to Shanghai 300 so-called “representatives of various public organs to insist on immediate anti-Japanese military operations.” Delegation scheduled to sail from Hong Kong tomorrow on the President Jefferson and consists of individuals hitherto unheard of, all of them travelling steerage. Delegation obviously one for demonstration purposes only. Local agent of Dollar Steamship Company informed me that Nanking Government informed American Consul General at Shanghai that members of delegation will not be permitted to land in Shanghai, that American Consul General so informed Dollar Steamship Company which instructed its Hong Kong office to inform delegation and refuse to sell tickets. This Consulate General has emphatically informed local authorities that the Dollar Steamship Company should be left out of the question which is obviously a political one for settlement between the Southwest and the Nanking Government, the American company being only a commercial firm bound by the well known laws governing steamship companies. Both officials finally admitted their appreciation of situation and desisted from [Page 237] efforts to blame American company. Authorities plan to buy through tickets to Kobe for this proclaimed arch anti-Japanese delegation in the belief that through passengers, delegates may be able to stop off in Shanghai and in any event will be quite free to land in Japan where they need no passports. Local Dollar agent who is proceeding at once to Hong Kong has given fullest details of my conversations with local authorities. Have given similar advice directly to the American Consul General at Hong Kong by telephone.
2. Very serious and increasingly chaotic conditions in Kwangsi is being reported in telegram to follow.
Sent to Shanghai and repeated to the Department, Peiping, Nanking and Hankow.