893.52/257
The Secretary of State to the Minister in China (Johnson)
Sir: The Department has received the Legation’s despatch No. 899, March 27, 1931,11 on the subject of regulations of the Mokanshan Administrative Bureau (Chinese) prohibiting the purchase by foreigners of land at Mokanshan, a summer resort in Chekiang Province, and providing that foreigners who have already acquired property at that place may transfer their property to Chinese purchasers only.
The Department has noted the Legation’s statement that the Chinese previously granted to foreigners, as a courtesy, the right to purchase land at this interior point, and the Legation’s opinion that the more recent action of the Chinese in withdrawing this privilege constitutes no valid ground for protest so long as the existing titles of American citizens to land at Mokanshan are not impaired by the regulations promulgated by the Chinese authorities.
Having in mind the Legation’s statement that the privilege of purchasing perpetual leases of land at Mokanshan was granted originally as a courtesy by the Chinese authorities to foreigners, it would appear to the Department that no sound ground exists for protest against the discontinuance of that privilege in so far as the purchase of new perpetual leases by Americans from Chinese is concerned. With respect to leases already acquired by Americans, the matter has a somewhat different aspect.
It may be presumed that American owners of perpetual leases at Mokanshan have in some instances expended material sums of money upon the land covered thereby in construction and improvements in reliance upon the then existing right to dispose of such leases in an unrestricted market. The effect of the regulations under discussion is to restrict that market.
While the Department does not desire that any protest be made at this time against this effect of the regulations, it does desire that the Legation report any instance coming to its attention in which existing American property rights have been impaired as a result of the administration of the regulations.
Very truly yours,
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