793.00/53: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé in China ( Mayer )
134. Department’s 125 June 24, 6 p.m. [July 1, noon] was communicated to the Washington Conference Powers and to Denmark, Peru, Spain and Sweden for information.77 Following telegram dated July 4, 1 p.m. has been received from American Embassy, London, from Perkins78
“From informal conversation with Waterlow79 it appears that the British Government fully shares the view of the American Government that it is essential to placate China by making such concessions as may be just and practicable. Without any desire however to be dogmatic on the subject Waterlow believes it preferable at the present moment to concentrate our efforts on the early convening of the special conference in which real and substantial advantages may be accorded to China rather than upon the meeting of the extraterritoriality commission since in the present state of China no very fundamental changes can be made in the immediate future as the result of the investigations of the commission. He feels that the simultaneous meeting of the conference and the commission might tend to confuse the Chinese public mind and to result in the exploiting of the more sentimental questions dealt with by the commission to the possible detriment of a proper appreciation of the real advantages to be obtained from the special conference. Waterlow regards it as inevitable that the scope of the conference itself must eventually be broadened encompassing the whole range of outstanding questions between China and the Powers.”
- It was communicated also to Norway.↩
- Mahlon F. Perkins of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State, who had been sent to London to confer with the British Foreign Office regarding the Special Conference for the Revision of the Chinese Customs Tariff.↩
- S. P. P. Waterlow, head of the Far Eastern Department of the British Foreign Office.↩