893.00 Nanking/76: Telegram
The Consul General at Hankow (Lockhart) to the Secretary of
State
Hankow, April 14,
1927—3 p.m.
[Received 11:10
p.m.]
17 to Legation, April 14, 3 p.m. Following reply received through the
office of Commissioner of Foreign Affairs from Eugene Ch’en this
afternoon at 2 o’clock:
- “1. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Nationalist
Government is in receipt of the United States Government’s
note dated April 11th, 1927,58 formulating terms ‘for the
prompt settlement of the situation created by the outrages
against American nationals committed by the Nationalist
troops at Nanking on 24th of March last.’
- 2. In reply to the American demand for ‘complete
reparations for the personal injuries and material damage
done’, the Nationalist Government are prepared to make good
all damage done to the American consulate at Nanking on the
ground that, whether or not such damage was caused by
Northern rebels and others as stated in the preliminary
statement issued by the Nationalist Government on March 31st
last, the fact remains that the American consulate on
Chinese territory has been violated.
- 3. As regards reparation for personal injuries to American
nationals and other material damage done, the Nationalist
Government are prepared to make all reasonable and necessary
reparation except in case where it can be definitely proven
that the same have been caused by the British-American naval
bombardment of Nanking on March 24th or by Northern rebels
and agents provocateurs.
- 4. The demand for the ‘adequate punishment of commanders
of the troops responsible for the murders, the personal
injuries and indignities and material damage done, as also
of all persons found to be implicated’, necessarily assumes
the guilt of the Nationalist forces who captured Nanking.
While this guilt is contradicted in the preliminary
statement issued on March 31st, a rigid government inquiry
is being conducted in order to ascertain the exact facts of
the case, including verification of the outstanding facts
reported to the military council by General Cheng Chien, who
took Nanking, that his
[Page 193]
forces rounded up and captured
approximately thirty thousand Northern soldiers with rifles,
besides thousands of camp followers, inside the city of
Nanking itself. General Cheng Chien has also reported that a
number of those implicated have been executed. The
Nationalist Government proposes that the question of
punishment should await the findings of either the
Government inquiry now in progress or of an international
commission of inquiry to be immediately instituted by the
Nationalist Government and the United States Government. As
the law of nations and the recognized practice of civilized
state[s] prohibit the bombardment of a city on the territory
of a friendly state, the Nationalist Government propose that
the commission of inquiry shall also investigate the
circumstances of the bombardment of the unfortified city of
Nanking by the naval forces of the United States Government
on March 24th last.
- 5. The demands for an ‘apology in writing by the commander
in chief of the Nationalist army including an expressed
written undertaking to refrain from all forms of violence
and agitation against foreign lives and property’, is, so
far as an apology is concerned, justified only on the proof
of Nationalist guilt for the disturbances at Nanking. The
Nationalist Government, therefore, propose that the question
of an apology should also wait the determination of the
question of guilt either by the Government inquiry now in
progress or by the proposed international commission of
inquiry. In the meantime, the Nationalist Government hereby
repeat the expression of profound regret which the Minister
for Foreign Affairs communicated to the United States
Government directly it was reported to him that the American
consulate at Nanking had been violated.
- 6. The Nationalist Government, as a reasonable governing
body, naturally cannot countenance the use, in any form, of
violence and agitation against foreign lives and property.
Indeed, the protection of foreign lives and property has
been repeatedly declared to be the settled policy of the
Nationalist Government. The proper authorities of the
Nationalist army will, of course, be instructed not only to
give a written undertaking in this sense but to see that
effective measures are taken to afford proper protection to
foreign lives and property.
- 7. The Nationalist Government, however, would be lacking
in candor if they should fail to regard and emphasize that
the best guarantee for the effective protection of American
and other foreign lives and property in China lies in the
removal of the fundamental cause of the present troubled
relations between Nationalist China and the powers who
continue to sustain the regime of the unequal treaties. It
is these inequitable treaties that constitute the chief
danger to foreign lives and property in China, and this
danger will persist as long as effective government is
rendered difficult by foreign insistence on conditions which
are at once a humiliation and a menace to a nation that has
known greatness and is today conscious of renewed
strength.
- 8. The Nationalist Government, accordingly, are prepared
and ready to appoint delegates to negotiate with delegates
of the United States Government a satisfactory settlement of
issues and differences between Nationalist China and the
United States of America on terms which, while assuring the
legitimate interests of the latter,
[Page 194]
shall modernize international
intercourse between the two countries and define and work
out their mutual interests and relations on the basis of
equality and reciprocity. Wuhan, April 14th, 1927.”
Department, American Legation, Peking, and consul general, Shanghai,
informed.
