File No. 763.72/509
The Chargé d’Affaires in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State 1
Peking, August 19, 1914, 5 p.m.
[Received 11 a.m.]
[Telegram]
I learn that the German Chargé d’Affaires has been discussing with the Foreign Office, altogether informally and unofficially in consequence of his having no instructions and being out of communication with his Government, the possibility of immediately retroceding Kiaochow directly to the Chinese Government. I also learn that the Chinese Government has now been warned to discontinue such pourparlers.
The British Minister informs me that the Japanese Government has made a communication to ours in regard to the terms of its [Page 173] cooperation without [with?] the other powers and the press telegrams report that “the United States regards Japanese promise to restore Kiaochow to China as satisfactory.” I beg to be informed of such communications as may have passed and particularly whether our Government has expressed approval of the Japanese proposal and, if so, whether the proposal as approved contemplates the immediate retrocession of the leased territory and of the special rights in Shantung conceded to Germany in conjunction with the lease.
- The first paragraph repeated to the Ambassadors in Great Britain and Japan, August 19.↩