693.002/638: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 6—1:25 p.m.]
625. Reference my 624, May 6, 4 p.m. Mr. A. Tajiri, First Secretary of the Japanese Embassy, called on the Inspector General of Customs yesterday and requested him to transfer forthwith to the Yokohama Specie Bank the Shanghai customs revenue balance in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. The Inspector General informed him that he could not comply with the request unless the Chinese Government first expressed no objection to such procedure. The Inspector General intimated that the recent provisional arrangement of depositing current revenue collections in the Yokohama Specie Bank is liable to cancellation in the event of the Chinese Government’s dissension.
The Japanese authorities, through Tajiri, requested the Shanghai Commissioner of Customs to call on the head of the Executive Yuan of the so-called “Reformed Government” in Nanking. The Inspector General replied that he could not authorize the Commissioner to establish contact with the new régime.
In response to request for the appointment of a senior Japanese customs employee in the Financial Secretary’s office, the Inspector General said that the proportion of Japanese employees in the customs establishment at Shanghai cannot be further increased at the present. Tajiri stressed the importance of settling as soon as possible the question of the transfer of funds above mentioned.
Repeated to Hankow, Peiping and Tokyo.