893.61331/114: Telegram
The First Secretary of Embassy in China (Salisbury) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3:20 p.m.]
604. In Tsingtao’s despatch No. 379 [369] of September 19, copies of which went to Department,84 Tokyo, Chungking and Shanghai, in regard to proposed Shantung Leaf Tobacco monopoly, reference is made to the Department’s telegraphic instruction No. 153, June 15, 3 p.m., to Peiping,85 with statement that
“It is reported that a firm will shortly be established at Tsingtao for the purpose of monopolizing the trade in Shantung leaf tobacco, of which about 115,000,000 pounds were grown in this province from American seed in 1937, largely under the auspices of the Yee Tsoong Tobacco Company Limited (a subsidiary of the British-American Tobacco Company), a British firm with a large percentage of American capital and employing Americans exclusively in its leaf department.”
The despatch continues:
“Aside from the adverse effects upon the activities of the British company referred to above in which there is considerable American interest, the local business of the American firm, the Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, Federal Incorporated, United States of America, would be destroyed by such a monopoly. The Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, Federal Incorporated, United States of America, is a large purchaser of Shantung leaf tobacco and, in addition to three buying stations and warehouses along the Tsingtao–Tsinanfu Railway, operates a large tobacco leaf redrying plant in Tsingtao.”
(See also Tsingtao’s September 16, 4 p.m. and Department’s 332, September 22, 8 p.m. to Tokyo regarding Universal Leaf Tobacco Company.)
Does the Department desire that I bring orally to the attention of the Japanese Embassy the effect of the proposed monopoly on the Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, leaving a memorandum on the subject?
Repeated to the Ambassador, by mail to Tsingtao, Tokyo and Shanghai.