493.11/1713: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 12—11:15 p.m.]
430. Following telegram has been sent to the American Consul General at Nanking: [Page 672]
“May 12, 2 p.m. Italian Legation reports that March and April installments of Italian portion of Boxer Indemnity have been paid. Please so inform Foreign Office referring to the Legation’s note number 590, May 3rd, that Legation learns with surprise that preferential treatment has been accorded to Italian Government and that there has been discrimination against the American Government which was the first government to remit for the benefit of China its portion of the indemnity of 1902 [1901], Please renew request that payments due the American Government for the months of March and April be paid without further delay in order that enterprises dependent upon these payments may not suffer.”