793.00/212
The Secretary of State to the Minister in China (MacMurray)
Sir: The Department transmits herewith a copy of a memorandum of a conversation held on October 30, 1928, by the Chinese Minister and Mr. Nelson T. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of State,40 on the subject of the revision of the treaties between China and foreign countries.
The Legation will note that the Chinese Minister broached the idea of convening a general conference of representatives of all the nations concerned with the matter of treaty revision. This suggestion was made informally and has not been discussed since the conversation reported in the enclosed memorandum. Informal conversations are in progress between Dr. C. C. Wu, special representative of the Nationalist Government, and the Division of Far Eastern Affairs on the general subject of a revision of the treaties now in force between the two countries. As you were informed in the Department’s telegram 338, of October 3 [6], 7 [1] p.m., these conversations do not partake of the character of formal treaty negotiations. They are being engaged in by the officers of the Department, at the desire of Dr. Wu, with the general object of ascertaining whether [Page 435] the Nationalist Government has any proposals to make upon which, in the light of conditions now obtaining in China, negotiations may be based.
I am [etc.]
- Not printed.↩