Office of the Historian

893.6359 Wolfram Ore/56: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (Peck)

Washington, April 8, 1939—3 p.m.

65. Reference Shanghai’s despatch No. 2031 of March 4, 1939, and enclosures thereto18 which indicate that the Chinese Government has [Page 663] granted to the Peiping Syndicate exclusive export or selling rights for Chinese wolfram (tungsten ore).

The Department desires that you make inquiries in regard to the matter and, if the reports are found in substance to be correct, that you, unless you perceive substantial objection, make appropriate representations to the Chinese Government based on the Department’s instruction No. 1745 of September 4, 1935,19 and the final paragraph of the Department’s instruction No. 182 of May 20, 1936.20 The Department suggests that, in addition to making clear our position with regard to monopolies as set forth in the instructions cited above, you point out that Chinese wolfram is a product of special interest to this country, express concern that the grant to a foreign company of monopolistic rights with regard to the export and sale of wolfram might prove prejudicial to American interest in the product, and request that the Chinese Government carefully avoid any action that might have such an effect.

Repeated to Shanghai, Peiping, and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong please repeat its 78, March 3, 1 p.m.,21 to Chungking, Peiping and Shanghai.

Hull
  1. None printed.↩
  2. Foreign Relations, 1935, Vol. iii, p. 786.↩
  3. Not printed; in the final paragraph the Department instructed the Embassy that it “should continue to oppose actively not only monopoly agreements which accord to foreign interests an exclusive or preferential trade position but also unreasonable restraints on international trade”. (893.602/45)↩
  4. Not printed.↩