693.002 Manchuria/183
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Castle) of a Conversation With the Japanese Ambassador (Debuchi)
The Ambassador called to say that Mr. Grew had called on Mr. Arita8 and had left with him a memorandum, very short, expressing the concern of this Government over the customs situation at Dairen. The Ambassador said that he was instructed by his Government to inform us that the Japanese Government felt very strongly the necessity of maintaining the integrity of the customs in Manchuria; that it would use its full influence with the Government of the State to have remitted to Shanghai the full amount of the customs necessary for the payments on the foreign loan. On the other hand, he said, the Government of Manchukuo felt that it should have the disposal of the surplus revenue over the amount due on the foreign loan since these revenues would be used for the benefit of the people of Manchukuo. I told the Ambassador that it seemed fairly obvious that the Manchukuo Government would do anything that the Japanese advisors told them to do. He said this was hardly the case, since, although he was willing to admit that the Manchukuo Government would not have come into existence without Japanese assistance and that it would certainly fall if Japanese troops were removed from Manchuria, that nevertheless this foster child was causing a good deal of trouble to the Japanese Government. He said that the Manchukuo authorities as well as their Japanese advisors often refused to accept the advice of Tokyo. I said this would only make it appear that they were more subservient to the Japanese military than they were to the Japanese Government. The Ambassador admitted that this might be the case. He referred to the fact that in 1927 the Administrator of the Customs, a British subject, had been removed because he would not obey orders from the new Nanking Government; that at that time Mr. Mase had become very friendly with the Nanking authorities and had got himself made Commissioner General. He said that at that time the Japanese had supported the dismissed British Commissioner General and that the British should have responded now by supporting Fukumoto, the Japanese Commissioner at Dairen. He said that he had not much sympathy with the position of Mr. Mase. I told him that I had to disagree with this; that Mr. Mase was obviously the captain and that if one of his lieutenants acted in an important matter directly contrary to his orders, I saw no alternative other than dismissal. The Ambassador had to admit this was true, but insisted that Mr. Mase was rather changing [Page 92] his ideas and that it might be possible to come to some arrangement whereby Fukumoto would not be disgraced; that the Japanese Government felt strongly on the matter since Fukumoto was himself a Japanese. I admitted that he was a Japanese but pointed out that a Japanese taking a position as an employee of the Chinese Government would of necessity be under the orders of that Government, not of his own Government, exactly as would be the case with any other foreigner. The Ambassador obviously knew that he had very little ground to stand on, and could do no more than reiterate what he had said at first, that his Government was determined to do all in its power to maintain the integrity of the customs service.
- Hachiro Arita, Director of the Asia Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Office.↩