493.11/2228: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Gauss) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:45 p.m.]
92. Following letter dated January 31st has been received by this office from financial secretary of Inspectorate General of Customs:
“With reference to the official statement published in the press on 15th January, notifying the decision of the Chinese Government to meet in future the service of all loans and indemnity obligations secured on the customs revenue in accordance to quotas; and that pending the remittance of the proportionate share of all foreign debt service charged to areas now under Japanese occupation to the Inspector General of Customs, the proportionate shares chargeable to areas under Government control would be set aside in a special account in the Central Bank of China, I am directed by the Inspector General to inform you that in execution of the above instructions the amount of $115,631.93 equaling, at the rate of 100 dollars, United States dollars 29½, the sum of United States dollars 34,111.42, being the proportionate share chargeable to areas under Government control of the sum of United States dollars 159,997.26, representing the January 1939 installment of the American portion of the Boxer indemnity due today, is being placed to the credit of the special account opened with the Central Bank of China for the custody of such funds.”