893.61331/229: Telegram
The Consul General at Shanghai (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 25—10:25 a.m.]
1299. Reference Shanghai’s 427, May 26, 1939, 3 p.m.,41 concerning refusal of Japanese authorities to permit Universal Leaf Tobacco Company to purchase leaf tobacco in Anhwei. With the commencement of the new tobacco season the above-mentioned company has again endeavored to obtain permission from the Shanghai office of Japanese Asia Affairs Board to proceed to Northern Anhwei to purchase leaf tobacco. Negotiations carried on over a period of several weeks with Major Okada of the Board have been unsuccessful and permission to purchase in Northern Anhwei has been refused, although the Japanese-controlled Central China Leaf Tobacco Company and its agents have been granted permission to purchase in the area mentioned.
The Company also reports that for the past six months it has been endeavoring to ship from Shanghai to Tsingtao 1,000 hogsheads of tobacco sold to a Japanese cigarette company. The company states that it has been unable to obtain permission to ship either from the Federal Reserve Bank in Tsingtao or the Asia Affairs Board, although it knows of no regulations prohibiting the shipment of American tobaccos to Tsingtao.
I am making representations to the Japanese Consul General here concerning these instances of interference with legitimate trade of an American firm but do not anticipate any satisfactory results. The Department may wish to consider bringing these cases to the attention of the Japanese Government through the Embassy at Tokyo.
Sent to the Department. Repeated to Chungking, Peiping. By air mail to Tokyo.
- Not printed.↩