893.51/2925
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Memorandum
The Department of State desires to refer again to the British Embassy’s memorandum of August 7, 1920,87 relative to the question of the proposed announcement to be made with regard to the Consortium. In that memorandum the British Embassy refers to the text of an announcement of the organization of the Consortium which this Government proposed that the four Consortium Powers should issue simultaneously, and which should also be communicated to the Chinese Government through the Legations at Peking; it was pointed out that His Majesty’s Government was inclined to regard the text of that announcement as in some respects inaccurate, e.g.
- (1)
- It spoke of the Consortium as “an established fact”, which would not strictly speaking be the same until after the meeting of the Groups in New York next October.
- (2)
- It implied that the Consortium is a new one.
With reference to point (1), the Department of State suggested that paragraph One of the proposed announcement be so amended as to avoid the implication objected to by His Majesty’s Government. There is attachéd hereto a copy of the proposed announcement with the paragraph thus amended.87 This amendment of the proposed announcement was communicated to the American Embassy at London by telegraph.
With reference to point (2), the Department of State desires to call attention to the last paragraph on page 4 of its note addressed to the British Ambassador on October 8, 1918,88 in which the Department set forth its views as to the purposes and formation of a new International Group to which it was hoped would be assigned the rights and options belonging to the old Consortium. This question now raised by His Majesty’s Government would appear to be covered by the views then set forth by the Department of State.
Point (2) was not mentioned in the telegram from the American Embassy at London89 referred to in the Department’s memorandum [Page 570] to the British Embassy of August 11th;92 and it is, therefore, hoped that the British Embassy will communicate the Department’s views thereon to the British Foreign Office.