493.11/939: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Minister in China ( Schurman )

256. Your No. 390 [290], December 8, 1 p.m.

The Department has on this date transmitted to the British Embassy a self-explanatory note as follows:

“I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your notes Nos. 106620 and 1067 of December 15, 1923, with reference to the question of the payment in gold of the instalments of the Boxer Indemnity due to Belgium, France, Italy and Spain. You quote the text of the identic telegram in French despatched on December 6 by the American, Belgian, British, Dutch, French, Italian, Japanese and Spanish representatives in Peking,21 and state that instructions have been issued to the British Minister to make it clear to the Diplomatic Body that the British Government cannot agree to the embargo upon Customs funds suggested in the identic telegram above mentioned.

In the light of the Boxer Protocol of September 7, 1901, and of the Agreement of January 30, 1912, as well as in view of the terms of the telegram adopted by the Diplomatic Body on December 11, 1923, for transmission to the Senior Consul at Canton,22 this Government doubts whether the Powers would, under the terms of the relevant agreements, be warranted in instructing the Commission of Bankers at Shanghai to withhold Customs funds as recommended in the identic telegram of December 6. Instructions have therefore been issued to the American Minister at Peking that this Government cannot participate in the proposed embargo.”

Hughes
  1. Not printed.
  2. See telegram no. 290, Dec. 8, from the Minister in China, p. 596.
  3. See telegram no. 397, Dec. 11, from the Minister in China, p. 568.