693.002 Manchuria/35: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in Great Britain (Atherton)
105. Your 125, March 30, 5 p.m.37 The account which you give in paragraph 2 implies that the Assistant Secretary of State with whom [Page 655] you spoke conceives that the Manchuria Government has a de lege existence and a right to negotiate and conclude agreements with the Chinese Government; also, that he conceives that we have proposed to the British Government joint action in the sense of protests to the Japanese Government in expectation that that Government in response thereto would restrain the present Manchuria authorities from proceeding with the apparently intended plan to sever the administration of customs in Manchuria from the Chinese Customs Administration.
We do not concede any right on the part of the Manchuria authorities to demand of the Chinese Government that it negotiate and conclude agreements with them. Our proposal to the British Government took the form of an inquiry whether they would be willing concurrently to make representations at Tokyo, at Nanking and in Manchuria registering objection to the dismemberment of the Chinese Customs Administration and reserving our rights. We believe that the British Foreign Office will concur in our view that the Japanese Government is a party to, if not an initiator of, the action which the Chinese authorities in Manchuria are proposing to take or have taken; and that the Japanese Government, if it chooses to do so, could easily prevent that action being taken. Holding this view, we believe that objection, if registered, should be registered with the Japanese Government as well as with the Chinese at Nanking and in Manchuria, regardless whether it will have any immediate effect toward preventing consummation of the intended severance.
It is not our present intention to act alone in this matter. The Chinese Customs Administration has always been a matter in regard to which the British Government has manifested the leading interest and concern. That Government and British financial interests have special agreements with China in regard to the Customs Administration. That Government has on various occasions indicated special solicitude with regard to the maintenance of the integrity of that Administration. If that Government does not now regard the matter as of sufficient consequence to it to warrant it to join us in action, it would seem that there is little or nothing that we can advisedly do in the premises.
Our invitation to them to take concurrent action stands open.
You should inform Sir John Simon of our views as above and you should expressly add that we would welcome receipt of any suggestion which the British Government may have to offer with regard to attitude to be taken in relation to administrative action by the Chinese authorities in Manchuria in contravention of provisions of China’s treaties and agreements.
- Not printed.↩