Subject:—Shanghai incident of May 30th (judicial
inquiry).
[Enclosure—Translation]
The Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Shen)
to the Netherlands Minister (Oudendijk), Senior Minister
[Peking,] October 2,
1925.
Monsieur le Ministre: I have the honour to
acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s Note of September 15th.
last informing me that the Foreign Governments interested have
authorised their Representatives at Peking to request their
American, British and Japanese Colleagues each to designate a Jurist
to be a member of a
[Page 709]
Commission of Enquiry into the circumstances of the incidents in
Shanghai of May 30th., and, in sending me a certified copy of the
terms of reference for the Commission, Your Excellency also
expressed the desire that a Chinese Jurist should also be one of its
members.
I beg to seize this opportunity to state that the British Chargé
d’Affaires at Peking, had in a Note of September 1st., last,
transmitted to this Ministry telegraphic instructions from his
Government respecting their proposal for a Judicial Enquiry. In view
of the lapse of time and changed circumstances whereby most of the
requisite evidence had become unobtainable or had disappeared and
moreover as the facts of the case had been carefully investigated
into at the beginning by Delegates on both sides, my Government had
informed Monsieur Palairet in reply that the application at the
present junction [sic] of such a procedure
would only serve the purpose of further complicating the issue.
Your Excellency is no doubt aware that after the occurrence of the
Shanghai incidents my Government lodged a formal protest through the
Italian and then Senior Minister with the result that the Diplomatic
Representatives of the interested Powers decided to send Delegates
to Shanghai to investigate into the incidents and empower them to
discuss and settle the case with the Chinese Delegates on the spot.
Though the negotiations were brought to a suspense [sic] through the lack of authority on the
part of the Diplomatic Delegates to settle the case as stated by
them but no question, however, arose in respect to the facts which
had been investigated into. When the case was transferred to Peking
for settlement the then Senior Minister brought out five points as
being suitable for discussion while consultations also took place on
the various articles embodied in this Ministry’s despatch of June
24th. last as they are within the scope of the case and admissible
for discussion.
Afterwards it was given out that the British Government proposed to
re-investigate the case by judicial procedure, a proposal [of] which
the British Chargé d’Affaires at Peking also subsequently made
mention. Consequently my Government instructed by telegraph their
Chargé d’Affaires at London to inform the British Government that as
the facts of the Shanghai case had already been investigated into
con-jointly by the Diplomatic Delegates who also had several
discussions with the Chinese Delegates, the re-investigation
suggested was unnecessary and would only involve a waste of time: a
view I also made known on several occasions to the Representatives
at Peking of the interested Powers.
To be informed three months after the occurrence of the incidents
that the Foreign Governments interested still come to the decision
of
[Page 710]
appointing delegates to
investigate into the case by judicial procedure, I beg leave to say
that my Government have not wavered from their attitude originally
maintained.
I avail myself of Your Excellency’s valued channels to transmit the
contents of this Note to Your Colleagues, the Heads of Mission
concerned, and to express to you, Monsieur le Ministre, the renewed
assurances of my very high consideration.
[File copy not signed]
