File No. 893.51/1066a.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassador to France.1
Washington, September 17, 1912.
Regarding the proposal of the British group that negotiations with China for the reorganization loan be resumed, and also their suggestion in connection therewith that a modification of the loan terms agreed upon at the Paris conference be considered, the Department on the 12th instant informed the American group that it had no objection to interpose to the proposal as a present expedient and without prejudice to what may prove the wisest course in later eventualities; also that the Department attaches the greatest importance, first, to the preservation of the financial understanding among the powers; second, to leading China to the acceptance of reasonable and adequate supervision of expenditures. In advancing these two aims the Department would welcome any transaction good in itself and tending toward ultimate broad financial reform in China, but would not think it wise to discourage a plan otherwise acceptable simply because it did not go the full length of broad financial reorganization. Moreover the Department assumes that any alternative suggestion that the Chinese Government may see fit to make, and which should include adequate and reasonable terms of supervision, would be carefully and sympathetically considered by the group.
- For repetition to London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and to Peking for repetition to Tokyo.↩