500.A 4 e/434
The American Minister (MacMurray) to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Shen)36
Excellency: With reference to my Legation’s note (No. 1094) of June 26th last, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that the important questions raised in your note of June the 24th have been carefully considered by the Government of the United States which has for some time been aware of the growing feeling in China in favor of a readjustment of Chinese treaty relations with the foreign Powers. It is believed that the Chinese Government does not require to be reminded of the concrete evidence of this interest which has been made manifest on each occasion when a question of treaty revision has occupied the attention of the two countries. The United States is now prepared to consider the Chinese Government’s proposal for the modification of existing treaties in measure as the Chinese authorities demonstrate their willingness and ability to fulfill their obligations and to assume the protection of foreign rights and interests now safeguarded by the exceptional provisions of those treaties. It is because of a most earnest desire to meet the aspirations of the Chinese Government that 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.
My Government sympathizes with the feeling of the Chinese Government that the tariff schedules attached to the various treaties between China and other Powers have become a severe handicap upon the ability of China to adjust its import tariffs to meet the domestic economic needs of the country. It must not be forgotten, however, that these tariffs were first inaugurated in 1842 and that they were a modus operandi originally devised to meet and remedy a condition which had been a fertile source of friction in the relations between China and the foreign Powers due to the uncertainties connected with the rates and methods of levying the tariffs then existing. Schedules of those tariffs were seldom available for the [Page 832] information of the merchant, who was hampered in his business by the irregular, arbitrary, and varying methods in the assessment and the collection of the duties. It is the belief of my Government that the conventional tariff was welcomed not alone by the Powers but also by China as a diplomatic solution of what had proved to be a very vexatious question.
Since the conclusion, in 1902 and 1903, of the commercial treaties referred to in Article II of the Treaty relating to the Chinese Customs Tariff, signed on February 6, 1922, my Government has given particular attention to every evidence of effort on the part of the Chinese Government in the direction of fiscal reforms which could be taken as an assurance that the old causes of international friction need no longer be feared and that the conventional tariff could be abandoned.
It was at the time of the negotiation of those treaties that the Chinese Government expressed a desire to reform its judiciary system and to bring it into accord with that of Western nations. The Powers party to those Treaties agreed to give every assistance to such reform and stated that they would be prepared to relinquish extraterritorial rights when satisfied that the state of the Chinese laws, the arrangements for their administration and other considerations warranted them in so doing. The Powers have since then observed attentively each measure that the Chinese Government, during the twenty-two years which have passed, has taken for the establishment of an independent judiciary and the enactment of laws for the administration of justice. The establishment of courts and the enactment of laws, however, do not in themselves meet all the requirements of the situation. Courts cannot function and develop properly or consistently without the aid of a stable Government capable and willing to maintain them and enforce their findings and decisions. It is regretted that the inability of the Chinese Government during the past few years fully to enforce the mandate of its authority has made it difficult for the courts and judiciary already established to function in a normal manner.
The questions of the conventional tariffs and of the extraterritorial rights under which nationals of the treaty Powers reside in China are two of the important questions raised by the Chinese Government’s note. Both received consideration at the Washington Conference, and it is the belief of the Government of the United States that the most feasible method for dealing with them is by a constant and scrupulous observance of the obligations undertaken at that Conference. To that end the Government of the United States is ready to appoint its delegates to the Special Conference on Chinese Tariff matters provided for in the Treaty of February 6, 1922, and is furthermore willing either at that Conference or at a subsequent time to [Page 833] consider and discuss any reasonable proposal that may be made by the Chinese Government for a revision of the Treaties on the subject of the tariff.
Before it can form any opinion as to what, if any, steps can be taken to meet the desire of the Chinese Government in regard to the question of extraterritoriality and those special safeguards of the treaties under which its nationals live and conduct their enterprises in China, my Government desires to have before it more complete information than has heretofore been available: and the most feasible way in which the question can be approached and considered is to send to China the Commission provided for in Resolution V of the Washington Conference, in the expectation that the investigation made by that Commission will help to guide the Treaty Powers as to what, if any, steps should be taken as regards the relinquishment by gradual means or otherwise of extraterritorial rights at that time. 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.
I avail myself [etc.]
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in China in his despatch No. 141, Sept. 19, 1925. Identic notes were presented to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs by the diplomatic representatives in China of Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Portugal.↩