693.119/351
The Chief of the Far Eastern Division, Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Department of Commerce
(Eldridge) to the Assistant
Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of
State (Lockhart)
Washington, September 10,
1920.
My Dear Mr. Lockhart: We are enclosing
herewith copy of a report on aeroplanes in China, recently received
from our Acting Commercial Attaché, Peking, China, in which it is
thought you might be interested.
Very truly yours,
[Enclosure]
The Acting Commercial Attaché at Peking
(Batchelder) to the
Director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce,
Department of Commerce (MacElwee)
Peking, July 23,
1920.
No. 57
Personal attention Mr. Eldridge.
Sir: Possibly you may be interested in
the attached cards of one of my callers, Col. Teheng Hung, who
stated that he was in charge of the “strictly commercial”
aeroplanes which have been sold to the Chinese Government. He
made no pretense of being interested in commerce, any more than
the foreign instructors, or the young military aviators. You
have probably seen the newspaper account that the Italian
Legation admitted the sales of arms and members of the Legation
saw the trench mortars marked “Italian Navy, Peking,” which were
sold to Tuan Chi-jui. The recent fighting all over China shows
that the arms embargo has been totally ineffective, as predicted
in my earlier letters.
The commercial aspect of the matter is that American concerns are
losing many profitable sales of munitions, as the U.S.
Government [Page 748] seems to be
the only one which attempts to prevent its nationals from
securing munitions contracts. The arms embargo is a dead letter
except as regards Americans. Merchants are constantly coming to
me to protest, but I tell them all this is a State Department
matter and refer them to the Legation. It is thought that you
might like to know the real facts in case inquiries are made as
to whether shipments are being made.
The representative of one American arms manufacturer told me
personally that his concern was making monthly shipment of arms
to Chinese Generals through two Japanese concerns whose names he
gave me. He also gave this information to the Legation.
