793.00/139b
The Secretary of State to the British Chargé (Chilton)
Aide-Memoire
Confirming his conversation with Mr. Chilton on the 5th instant the Secretary of State informs him that the American Ambassador at London was instructed yesterday18 that desiring to meet the British point of view regarding the text of the proposed reply to the Chinese Government’s proposals of June 24, quoted to Mr. Chilton in Department’s note of July 23, 1925, the Department has authorized the American Minister at Peking to make the following changes in that text.
In the first paragraph he has been authorized to omit the phrase “sympathetically and helpfully” and to amend the latter part of the fourth sentence of the first paragraph 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 anti-foreign 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”.
In paragraph two the words “irregular, arbitrary” are to be substituted for the words “unusual, abrupt”.
In paragraph four the American Minister has been authorized to omit the sentence “it has been gratified to note the progress that has been made in this connection”.
In paragraph five he has been authorized to substitute the words “dealing with the entire subject of the tariff” for the words “looking toward ultimate tariff autonomy”.
In paragraph six he has been authorized to substitute for the word “sanctions” the word “safeguards”. In this paragraph he has also been authorized to substitute for the last two sentences 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 [Page 816] 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”.
The American Ambassador at London has been instructed to communicate the above amendments to the British Foreign Office and to state that it is hoped that with these amendments the British Government will find itself able to accept the American draft and so instruct its Chargé at Peking.
- Telegram of August 5; not printed.↩