893.74/569
The British Ambassador ( Howard ) to the Secretary of State
Sir: I have the honour to refer to the Department of State’s note verbale of February 26th last16 on the subject of wireless telegraphy in China, and to inform you that the memorandum of December 24th, 1924, from the Japanese Embassy here to the United States Government, a copy of which was communicated to me by my Japanese colleague, seems, in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government, to indicate a genuine desire on the part of the Imperial Government to put an end to the lamentable and dangerous confusion into which the question of wireless telegraphy in China has fallen. I have therefore been instructed to state that, subject to the safeguarding of the prior rights of the Marconi Company, His Majesty’s Government would welcome in principle the formation of such a consortium as that suggested in the fifth paragraph of the Japanese memorandum.
In order that there may be no misunderstanding in regard to the reservation outlined above, my Government have directed me to invite the attention of the United States Government once again to the nature and extent of the prior rights of the Marconi Company. You will be aware that negotiations between the Chinese Government and the Marconi Company for the erection of wireless stations in China began in September 1909 and continued until April 8th, 1914, when the Chinese Government signed a preliminary agreement with the Company.17 The Marconi Company also hold additional rights through the Chinese National Wireless Telegraph Company, which was created by special charter on May 24th, 1919, and is jointly owned [Page 906] by the Chinese Government and the Marconi Company. The contract of this company provides that the Chinese Government shall purchase exclusively from the Chinese National Wireless Telegraph Company all its present and future requirements in wireless telegraph and telephone apparatus, material and supplies, and that, if the Government suffer no loss by giving such work to the Chinese Company, then this Company shall be exclusively entrusted with the repair and maintenance of all wireless telegraph and telephone apparatus and equipment in China. These conditions have, in the opinion of His Majesty’s Government, been constantly violated by the Chinese Government in many ways as for instance by the contract signed by the Chinese Government in 1921 with the American Federal Company.
In furnishing you with the above exposition of the situation as it is seen by my Government, I would add that a similar communication is being addressed to the Japanese Government by His Majesty’s Ambassador at Tokio.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1921, vol. i, p. 408, footnote 5.↩