693.11241 Manchuria/7
The Consul General at Mukden (Ballantine) to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)42
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 123 of June 24, 1935 in which I referred to the reply given to me by Mr. Ohashi, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, to my inquiry regarding his attitude towards the imposition of import duties on official supplies for the Consulates General at Harbin and Mukden, and to report the substance of a conversation I had with him on this point in my interview with him on November 13.
I referred to our previous conversation in which he had said that the action which had been taken on this matter had originated in the Department of Finance, and that as he was not conversant with the reasons which had prompted it, he would discuss the matter at our next interview after consultation with that department. Mr. Ohashi said that he did not wish it to be understood that the “Manchukuo” Government expected to induce foreign governments to act in the matter of recognition through resort to petty tactics such as the imposition of duties on official supplies, but he felt that as “Manchukuo” was an independent state the least that could be asked was that procedure on customs free entry be regularized by requiring as a condition precedent to granting it that formal application therefor be made to the Foreign Office. I said that I had no comment to offer, and was merely seeking information.
In this general connection, it may be well to mention that Mr. Ohashi was very unreserved and cordial to me on the occasion of my visit. He took occasion to refer particularly to the fact that my British Colleague and myself had exerted ourselves to maintain friendly informal contacts in contrast to the aloofness of consular representatives of other countries. Mr. Tsutsui, an old acquaintance formerly in the Japanese Foreign Service, but now Director of the Bureau of Information, expressed the hope that I could make my visits to Hsinking more frequent.
Respectfully yours,
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Consul General in his unnumbered despatch of November 15; received December 4.↩