File No. 893.51/175b.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassador to France.1
Washington, October 31, 1910.
The competent Chinese authorities have now signed and ratified a preliminary agreement with an American financial group for a loan of $50,000,000 gold, the principal part of which is to be used to reform China’s currency system, in pursuance of her treaty obligations toward the United States, Great Britain and Japan. This Government believes the proposed reform to be of fundamental [Page 92] importance to all the powers who have extensive commercial relations with China as well as to China herself and the countries that have treaty provisions relating thereto. In its endeavor to cause this reform to be carried out, this Government will welcome the cordial support of the interested powers.
You may informally make the foregoing known to the Government to which you are accredited.
Note.—On October 31, 1910, the French and German bankers insisted on amending the agreements of July 6, 1909, so as to require joint signature of the final loan agreement with China by all four groups. The British and American groups consented to such amendments at a conference in London, November 8–10, 1910, the American group obtaining, however, an exception of the currency loan agreement if the Chinese Government would not consent to the admission of the other groups as signatories. A quadruple agreement was thereupon signed, providing for joint action in carrying Chinese loans.
- The same to the Embassies at London, Berlin, St. Petersburg and Tokyo.↩