693.002/627: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)
139. Your 233, May 3, 7 p.m. You may inform Kung orally of the substance of the first paragraph of the Department’s telegram No. 153, May 2, 8 p.m., to Tokyo, which Tokyo was instructed to repeat to you. With reference to the last sentence of that paragraph, you may say to Kung in confidence that by the time the Department had received from the British clarification as to the meaning of; that part of the arrangement which relates to payments from north China in national currency, the arrangement had already been agreed upon by the British Ambassador and the Japanese Foreign Office, but that the Department nevertheless definitely queried the reasonableness of that part of the arrangement. You may say to Kung also in confidence that we were asked to indicate that we had no objection to the arrangement and that we replied that we desired to withhold any further comment until the Chinese Government had made known its attitude toward the whole arrangement.
Department has repeated to Tokyo this telegram and your telegram under reference.