793.00/121: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 5—9:25 a.m.]
311. Your telegram number 181, August 3, 5 p.m.
1. From a conversation which the British Chargé d’Affaires had with me yesterday in pursuance of the instructions referred to in your telegram I infer that the British Foreign Office is concerned less with the substance of our draft note than with the relative emphasis placed in it upon our willingness to accede to Chinese wishes to the point of subordinating the emphasis upon China’s responsibilities.
In order to meet what I understand to be the British views, I would suggest the modifications below.
2. Latter part of fourth sentence, first paragraph, of draft might be made to read:
“The Government of the United States desires to impress upon the Chinese Government the necessity of giving concrete evidence of its ability and willingness to enforce respect for the safety of foreign lives and property and to suppress disorders and antiforeign agitations which embitter feeling and tend to create conditions unfavorable for the carrying on of negotiations in regard to the desires which the Chinese Government has presented for the consideration of the treaty powers.”
This language is in part suggested by that of your note of the 24th [23rd?] to the British Embassy.
3. The last two sentences of draft note might be replaced by the following:
“My Government is now ready to appoint its commissioner to sit with the commissioners of the other interested governments in accordance with that resolution. It hopes that that commission may be able to begin at an early date its investigation into the existing conditions of the administration of justice in China, and to make a report which will serve as a basis for the recommendations to be made, in pursuance of the resolution, for the purpose of enabling the governments concerned to consider what, if any, steps may be taken with a view to the relinquishment of extraterritorial rights.”
4. If these modifications are acceptable to you I suggest that you inquire through the Embassy at London whether they would with other amendments already approved bring the British Foreign Office to adopt our draft.