893.512/723: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in China (MacMurray)
Washington, December 6,
1927—4 p.m.
403. Your 1063, December 3, 9 a.m.
- 1.
- The proposed tax arrangement between Nanking authorities and the Standard Oil Company was brought orally by the Company to the attention of the Department on November 21 without any indication [Page 431] of the line of action which the Company proposed to take. The Department has subsequently been informed of telegrams exchanged by the Company with its Shanghai office in relation thereto. Department refrained from any comment in regard to the arrangement considering it a matter for private negotiation. (See Department’s telegram 208 [298], November 17, 6 p.m., 1921.)77
- 2.
- The Standard Oil Company and other foreign companies evidently feel that compliance with these regulations is necessary to the continuance of their business and payment of the tax under protest is in accord with the policy suggested in Department’s telegram 283, July 12, 3 p.m., paragraph 4. Department believes that the Company’s protest should be supported by the American Consul General if based on treaty infraction such as refusal to issue or to recognize efficacy of exemption certificates or transit passes or the taxation of goods while still at port of entry as Company is being forced to pay taxes under protest.
Kellogg
- Not printed.↩