Office of the Historian

693.002 Manchuria/14: Telegram

The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State

Shanghai, March 22, 1932—11 a.m.
[Received March 22—5:49 a.m.]

My March 10, 11 a.m.19

1.
I am informed by the Minister of Finance that his Ministry is in receipt of increasing evidence of an intention on the part of the newly set-up régime in Manchuria styling itself the Manchukuo to take over the customs régime in Manchuria thus severing the last link between Manchuria and China. While it is true that the so-called Manchukuo authorities undertake or promise to contribute their share to the foreign obligations of the Government of China they will refuse to bear any share in domestic loan obligations charged in [on?] the customs. They propose to control all staff and tariff rates and it is [Page 617] believed that a proposal for a customs union between the Manchukuo régime and Japan which may be brought about will mean abolishment at least of export duties on products leaving Manchuria for Japan.
2.
I am confident that none of these measures can be accomplished without encouragement from the Japanese Government. In view of the attitude which the American Government and the League have adopted toward the Sino-Japanese situation I wonder whether the Department will not find it consonant with its policy to make representations at Tokyo with a view to persuading the Government of Japan to discourage any movement against the integrity of the customs which is today the foundation of China’s credit and the sole basis for the settlement of China’s unsecured and inadequately secured foreign and domestic indebtedness and which would result in severing the last link between that area and the rest of China.
3.
The way to such representations is open due to the fact that the Japanese Government has on numerous occasions given assurances that it had no political or territorial ambitions in Manchuria and has by the Nine-Power Treaty pledged itself to respect the administrative and territorial integrity of China. Furthermore, Japan as well as China have by accepting the resolutions which have been adopted by the League undertaken not to do anything which would aggravate the situation.
4.
It should be remembered that this case is in no wise similar to situation which arose in Canton20 and Tientsin21 where attempts were made to seize the customs. In those cases the party attempting to seize the customs hoped to succeed to the Government of China, in this case the Manchukuo is a secessionist government expecting to separate itself entirely from the Chinese Government.

Repeated to the Legation.

Johnson
  1. Not printed; for substance, see Department’s telegram No. 88, March 11, 1 p.m., to the Chargé in Great Britain, p. 562.↩
  2. Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, pp. 409–416.↩
  3. See ibid., 1930, vol. ii pp. 223–274.↩