893.515/1450
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hamilton) of a Conversation With the Counselor of the British Embassy (Mallet)
Mr. Mallet telephoned this morning and said that the Embassy was pressed for information as to the Department’s attitude in regard to the questions raised in the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of July 26 in regard to the currency situation in north China. This afternoon Mr. Mallet called in regard to the same subject and said that his Government was desirous of being informed whether the Department concurred in the view expressed in the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of July 26; that the British Government hoped that, if it should take a strong line, it might count on this Government’s support, especially in view of the fact that the United States had just given notice to Japan88 of intention to terminate the commercial treaty;89 and that the British Government would be glad to have any suggestions which we might be in position to offer as to tactics which the British might best employ in their negotiations. He said that his Government hoped that we would make clear to the Japanese Government that we were interested in the currency situation and possibly inform the Japanese Government that we could not agree to any arrangement which might be arrived at in regard to currency matters without our assent.
I told Mr. Mallet that we had prepared a telegram to our Embassy [Page 436] in Tokyo which would probably be signed this evening;90 that in this telegram we had asked our Chargé, if he had not already done so, to inform the British Ambassador of the approaches which the Chargé had already made to various Japanese, officials and others, expressing this Government’s interest in the broad phases of the Tientsin situation, including the question of currency; and that we had asked Mr. Dooman to continue to make known to the Japanese Government our interest in the currency matter and other broad questions related to the Tientsin negotiations. Mr. Mallet said that he thought this would be very helpful.
With regard to the point mentioned in the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of July 26 to the effect that the British Government felt that it was of the greatest importance that the British, French and American banks adopt a common policy, I said, that, as Mr. Mallet knew, the American banks so far as we were aware had up to the present followed such a common policy. He inquired what the attitude of the American banks was likely to be at some subsequent date and I replied that in my opinion this would depend largely upon the outcome of the conversations now taking place at Tientsin.
With regard to the point mentioned in the last paragraph of the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of July 26 in regard to the silver reserves now held in certain banks in the British and French Concessions at Tientsin, I said that we did not feel that we could appropriately offer any comment in regard to this particular phase of the currency question.
With regard to the British desire to receive suggestions as to tactics, I said that I did not believe that we had any suggestions to offer. I added that we would be glad to think over the matter in the light of the further information which Mr. Mallet had communicated and to get in touch with him in the morning. He said that he was coming to the Department on another matter about 11 a.m. and we arranged that he should drop in at my office thereafter.
- Note of July 26, p. 558.↩
- Signed February 21, 1911, Foreign Relations, 1911, p. 315.↩
- See telegram No. 233, July 31, 8 p.m., to the Chargé in Japan, infra.↩