Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1925, Volume I

893.5045/198: Telegram

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

Peking, August 30, 1925—5 p.m.
[Received August 30—9:10 a.m.]

364. Your telegram number 221, August 27, 7 p.m.¹⁸

1. British Chargé d’Affaires now out of town, sent to me yesterday one of his secretaries with a letter making “very urgent appeal” to me to urge you not to insist on McEuen’s resignation and stating “my Government feel very strongly that this procedure would be unfair and would lead to trouble: indeed they are frankly unable to accept it.”

2. If, as is indicated both by this letter and by Chamberlain’s conversation with our Ambassador, the British Government may be expected to persist to the end in this shortsighted view, it seems necessary to accept that fact and the consequences that McEuen cannot be got to resubmit his resignation before the inquiry and that insistence upon it would indefinitely postpone all action towards the settlement of the Shanghai incident.

3. Under these circumstances it seems to me wiser to yield to the extent of contenting ourselves for the time being with his suspension which should however be arranged to take effect as soon as possible without awaiting the commencement of inquiry.

4. I remain however convinced that Shanghai affair can never be really settled and the intense and widespread bitterness of the Chinese be allayed so long as McEuen is retained in his post. If the inquiry should find him at fault the matter will presumably be disposed of by his dismissal. But if as is quite possible it should find that his conduct was not culpable but involved question of the exercise of his administrative discretion’ which a judicial inquiry is not competent to review, the Chinese would undoubtedly resent what they would regard as a whitewash and there would be a fresh outburst of agitation against the British and other nationalities which they considered parties to repudiation of responsibility for shooting.

5. Unless therefore it can be arranged that McEuen if acquitted will nevertheless retire from post in which his presence is a challenge and an incitement to antiforeign feeling, we owe it to ourselves to dissociate ourselves so far as possible from the policy of obstinately ignoring Chinese sensibilities which has already proved the chief [omission] in the present crisis in China. And unless the British Government is prepared to do its part to prevent Shanghai negotiations proving abortive by exerting its influence upon McEuen and the British members of Municipal Council to obtain in advance the offer of his voluntary retirement in the event of his being vindicated by the inquiry, I feel that we should hold aloof from those negotiations and that I should be instructed not to accept membership on the committee which it is planned should negotiate with the Chinese Government in behalf of interested Legations for the settlement of matters immediately connected with shooting.

6. Concretely I recommend that we should inform British Foreign Office that for sake of avoiding indefinite delay in settlement of the Shanghai affair we will not insist upon McEuen’s resignation before the inquiry; but that we feel so strongly that his retention in his post would perpetuate the Chinese rancour against the position of foreigners throughout China and render abortive any negotiations for the settlement of the Shanghai incident, that we would prefer to hold aloof from any such negotiations unless assured that he will ask to be retired in the event of his vindication by the inquiry.

MacMurray

18. Not printed; it repeated telegram No. 274, Aug. 27, from the Ambassador in Great Britain, p. 699, and added, “Department desires your comments and suggestions as to way out of present impasse.”