893.74/585
The British Chargé (Chilton) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 23.]
Sir: In his note No. 566 of May 28th last, Sir Esme Howard drew your attention to the prior rights of the Marconi Company as regards the working of wireless telegraphy in China and informed you that, provided these rights were safeguarded, His Majesty’s Government would welcome in principle the suggestion of the Japanese Government that a consortium should be formed to liquidate the difficulties arising out of the conflicting interests of the various concessionaires.
His Majesty’s Government are in full sympathy with the view expressed by my Japanese colleague in the memorandum which he addressed to the United States Government on December 24th last that this controversy should be adjusted along the lines of international co-operation. In order, therefore, that there may be no misconception as to the construction to be placed on the above mentioned proviso regarding the prior rights of the Marconi Company, I am instructed to explain that His Majesty’s Government will consider the interests of this Company to be sufficiently safeguarded if they are enabled to participate on equal terms in the consortium contemplated by the Japanese Government.
In determining their attitude in this matter, His Majesty’s Government have been impressed by the fact that the difficulties now handicapping the development of wireless communications with China afford a striking illustration of the soundness of the general principles so ably championed by the United States Government in other spheres of foreign relations with that country. The essence of these principles consists in the eradication of international competition [Page 911] in China and the abstension of the foreign powers concerned from any attempt to seek special privileges for themselves and their nationals. His Majesty’s Government do not doubt that these considerations will also animate the policy of the United States Government in the present instance. At the same time, however, they view with a certain apprehension the possibility of practical application being given to the suggestion put forward by the United States representatives at the time of the Washington Conference that the conduct of wireless between the United States and China ought to be solely in the hands of a Sino-American enterprise. Whilst His Majesty’s Government for their part were prepared to accept the recommendations of the wireless experts when taken as a whole, they cannot but feel, in the light of the present difficulties, that the suggestion of the American representatives on this particular point would in practice militate against the above mentioned principle of equality of opportunity and encourage the powers to claim from the Chinese Government a monopoly of the wireless traffic between themselves and China. Such action on the part of the powers would materially increase the difficulties of the situation and result in the infliction of a considerable injustice on China.
His Majesty’s Government are confident that this aspect of the matter will not have escaped the notice of the United States Government, and in drawing your attention to the standpoint of His Majesty’s Government as regards the interests of the Marconi Company, I have the honour to request that I may be informed at an early date of the attitude of the United States Government towards the question of the future development of wireless telegraphy in China and to express the hope that their views on the subject may coincide with those of His Majesty’s Government, who are prepared to give their whole-hearted support to the proposals submitted in the above mentioned Japanese memorandum of December 24th last, for the solution of the complicated and far-reaching political issues which this problem involves.
I have [etc.]