893.51/5931
Mr. Thomas W. Lamont of J. P. Morgan & Co. to the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck)
[Received October 19.]
Dear Dr. Hornbeck: Referring to our correspondence of last June and particularly to your personal letter of June 1897 which arrived just as I was leaving for the other side: I had opportunity yesterday for the first time of discussing with the Managing Committee of the [Page 421] American Group the subject of my talks with you. I explained that there had been evinced in some quarters of the American Group a disposition looking towards the dissolution of the Group on two grounds: First, that the continuance of the Group was all expense and no income, even though the expense might not be very heavy, but with no factor in sight that would seem likely in the near future to reduce or eliminate it; and, second, that under the new Securities Bill98 all but three or four members of the American Group were estopped from handling securities of any kind, the American Group being composed with only a few exceptions of incorporated banks or private bankers who are continuing their private business.
Preserving your confidence, I at the same time explained to the committee that in short the view of the Department of State was that the present would be an inopportune time for active consideration of Group dissolution, and that, therefore, we were prepared to recommend for the time being that the question be held entirely in abeyance. For your information, the Group concurred in this view, and I am accordingly transmitting this information to you.
As a matter of fact, in some way or other the knowledge that some such idea has been broached has gained some little currency, because I received a letter from the Japanese Consul General this morning, making inquiry on the subject, such inquiry having apparently been prompted from the Foreign Office in Japan. I am answering him briefly to the effect that no present consideration is being given by the American Group to any question of dissolution.
Sincerely yours,
P. S. This letter was dictated last week, but only finished yesterday. T. W. L. Oct. 16.