893.51 Salt Funds/99: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 4—3 a.m.]
I have received a letter from the two chief inspectors of Salt Revenue, dated March 30th, in which they request, under instructions of the Minister of Finance, that the American Government make urgent appropriate representations to the Japanese Government regarding the refusal of the local authorities in Manchuria, assisted by Japanese advisers and backed by Japanese military forces, to respect the rights of the Chinese Government to the revenues of the salt monopoly; the letter points out that the Salt Inspectorate in China had been set up pursuant to agreements whereby its collections were pledged for the service of international loans. The taking over of the Inspectorate offices in Manchuria is characterized as altogether unprecedented, as destroying its functions in Manchuria, as breaking up the integrity of the Salt Inspectorate as a whole.
Text by mail.43
- Not printed.↩