ment is to be, in order that they may be in a position to formulate
their own future policy and determine whether further investment
and installation is justified, and he expressed the hope that the ad-
ministration of the impending legislation if passed would not inter-
fere with the present activities of the foreign oil companies in Japan.
The local manager of the Standard-Vacuum Company would like to
have me make similar informal representations. Does the Depart-
ment perceive objections? (See my despatch 311 [384?], May 11,
last 80).
                                                            GCw

693.113 (Manchuria) Petroleum/34: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Bingham)

                               WASHINGTON, March 8, 1934-2 p. m.
  92. Please state orally and informally to the Foreign Office as
follows:
  (a) In October last the Department instructed consular officers
in Manchuria to make suitable representations to Manchukuo Cus-
toms and other local authorities against the practice of Manchukuo
Customs of admitting Japanese illuminating oil under a lower rate
of duty than that levied upon American kerosene. Such representa-
tions proving ineffectual, the American Consul General at Mukden
was instructed to discuss the matter with the Japanese Embassy to
Manchukuo.
  (b) The discrimination complained of is still being practiced, the
Manchukuo authorities affirming that the use of any test other than
the present "burning test" for determining the illuminating property
of oils offered for importation would be impracticable and that suit-
able revision of the tariff would have to await a general revision of
the entire tariff schedule, which would not be made for about 18
months.
  (c) We are informed that British consular officers have been mak-
ing similar representations, and therefore we assume that the British
Government shares the view that the practice under reference of the
Manchukuo Customs is discriminatory and that it cannot be recon-
ciled with the repeated assurances of the Japanese Government that
the open door would be maintained in Manchuria.
  If such assumption is correct, the American Government would
be glad to receive at as early a date as may be convenient an indica-
tion of the British Government's view with regard to the possibility
of similar representations in the premises being made simultaneously
by the American and British Governments, through their respective
Ambassadors in Tokyo, to the Japanese Government.
                                                           HuoL



* Not printed.



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JAPAN