PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON - DIPLOMATIC APPOINTMENT SIGNED 12/13/1920 CO-SIGNED BY: NORMAN H. DAVIS - HFSID 32615

WOODROW WILSON
Appointment of an interpreter at the U.S. Consulate in Manchuria
Diplomatic appointment signed: "Woodrow Wilson" in pencil as President, 1p, 23x19. Washington, 1920 December 13. Countersigned: "Norman H. Davis" as Acting Secretary of State. In part: "Know Ye, that reposing special trust and confidence in the Integrity and Ability of Harvey T. Goodier, of New York, I do appoint him Interpreter to the Consulate of the United States of America at Dairen, Manchuria, and do authorize and empower him to execute and fulfil the duties of that Office...." Dairen (Dalian) is on the coast of the Liaodong Peninsula, 20 miles east of Port Arthur (Lüshun). Manchuria historically held strong economic interests for the U.S. Russia had acquired a lease of the peninsula from China in 1898 and began the development of a commercial port at Dairen. Japan occupied the area from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 until its defeat in World War II. From the Russo-Japanese War to the 1920s, the U.S. played a diplomatic "balancing act" by avoiding siding with Russia, Japan and China over issues in Manchuria in order to preserve its economic position there. Norman H. Davis (1878-1944) was a U.S. diplomat. He served as President Wilson's Assistant Secretary of Treasury and later as Undersecretary of State. Norman made millions of dollars from his financial dealings in Cuba from 1902 to 1917, where he was the President of the Trust Company of Cuba. In 1939, following the outbreak of war in Europe, Davis chaired the steering committee of the Council on Foreign Relations' War and Peace Studies project, created to advise the U.S. Government on wartime policy. This appointment was signed by Wilson in indelible purple pencil after his strokes and physical breakdown in 1919. Stamped signatures of Wilson were frequently used during the last 17 months of his presidential term. Authentically signed documents such as the one offered here are scarce and desirable. Creased at blank margins. Otherwise, fine condition.