CO129-437 - Public Offices - 1916 — Page 345

Copy

No. 1. A. 9352

95291

TRANSLATION.

343

27

Note Verbale.

The Foreign Office have the honour to transmit here with to the Embassy of the United States of America. a copy of a letter dated the 16th instant, which has been received from the Deutsch Asiatische Bank, relative to the procedure adopted by the British Colonial Authorities at Hongkong against the local branch of that Bank.

The German Goverment would be glad if the United States Government would communicate as soon as possible, if possible by telegraph, with their Consular Representative at Hongkong to enquire the grounds for which the British Colonial Authorities have decided that a sale by auction is necessary. At the same time the German Government request that the British Government may be informed that the auctioning of the premises of the Deutsch-Asiatische Rank which is to take place in spite of the exist- ence of sufficient cash-assets to satisfy the claims of the local creditors, would be considered by the German Government in the light of a violation of German private rights contrary to the provisions

of international law.

Berlin, May 24, 1916.