The Nationalists’ efforts to gain US support were more effective. At the Nine-Power Conference held in Brussels in November 1937, the Chinese delegation had been unable to convince the United States to impose sanctions and confront Japan. By mid-1938, however, American attitudes had begun to change. As Japan moved further southward into China, it became increasingly clear that the occupied country would be closed to outside trade. In December 1938, US treasury secretary Henry Morgenthau facilitated a private loan of $25 million to China, to be repaid in kind with supplies of tung oil (a
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