611.939/138: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 2—1 p.m.]
257. 1. According to the Peking and Tientsin Times of May 31, the restriction on the transportation of certain categories of goods into the British and French Concessions is extended to commodities other than cotton yarn and cloth. The list of articles affected by the ban is said to include artificial silk, furs and skins, hides, hemp and woolen yarns.
2. A Swiss firm in Peiping states that it has been doing a substantial business in dog skins for shipment to the United States and that its Tientsin office has recommended that no further shipments be made until the situation in Tientsin is clarified.
3. Tientsin’s despatch No. 804 of May 2961 states that carpets, rugs, and woolen yarn and dyed raw wool belonging to an American rug firm were prevented entry into the British Concession. Although the carpet and rugs were subsequently allowed to enter the yarn and raw wool have not as yet been permitted to enter. The Japanese military are stated to be responsible for these measures.
4. Preventing raw materials and in some cases finished products, from entering the Concessions may indicate that the Japanese are initiating an economic isolation of the Concessions. If these restrictive measures continue, business will have to move out of the Concessions in a great many cases and there will be serious interference with the trade in which Americans are interested.
Repeated to Chungking. By air mail to Tokyo. By mail to Tientsin and Shanghai.
- Not printed.↩