393.11/644: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17—5:34 a.m.]
564. Your 116 [216], May 11, 2 p.m. Following from American consul at Hankow:
“May 16, 10 a.m. Your 41, May 13, 4 p.m. German whom Asiatic Petroleum Company sent to Changsha to arrange for disposing of installation stocks failed in his mission. Asiatic Petroleum Company has no intention of reopening at Changsha so long as present conditions prevail; on the contrary it desires to remove stocks now at Changsha to Hankow. So far as I am able to ascertain there will be no revival of trade at Changsha until conditions there and here are improved. The money situation makes resumption of normal trade practically impossible.”