693.002/874: Telegram
The Consul at Hankow (Jarvis) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:25 p.m.]
126. 1. The Customs have not functioned at Hankow since the Japanese occupation except in the post office where they carried on for several weeks until the delivery of parcels was stopped. On May 27 the Japanese allowed the delivery of parcels to be resumed whereupon two foreign customs officers were sent by the Commissioner of Customs to the post office to collect duties but were prevented by the Japanese. For 2 days Japanese connected with the Military Police or Army Special Service Section controlled the release of parcels in some cases collecting arbitrary charges for which they gave no receipts. This was stopped by higher Japanese authority and the post office has since been delivering parcels without interference and with no payment of duty.
2. I am informed by the Commissioner of Customs that about 3 weeks ago he suggested to Major General Morioka, Chief of the Japanese Army Special Service Section, that the Customs should be allowed to resume its functions here under arrangements similar to those made at Tientsin, Tsingtao and other occupied ports and that Morioka replied that the Customs will not be allowed to function as long as Hankow is within the war zone and the Yangtze River is closed (to general navigation). According to the Commissioner, Morioka declared that the Customs will be reestablished “some day” on the same basis as at other places in China; that the regulations promulgated by the “Wuhan special municipality” for the establishment of a “preparatory office of Customs Administration” have not been approved (by November 23 presumably); and that he had no knowledge of any Japanese sponsored organ collecting customs duties with official sanction. The Commissioner told me he had not been able to substantiate the rumors that native cargo bound for Hankow is being taxed en route.
3. The Director of Posts told me in strict confidence that the attempt of the Customs to resume functioning in the post office, about which he had not been consulted, had increased his difficulties. He would prefer in the interest of the Postal Administration and the public that the customs issue should be raised without involving the postal service. Both the Commissioner of Customs and the Director of Posts are British subjects.
Repeated to Chungking, Peiping, and Shanghai. Shanghai please repeat to Tokyo.