Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1928, Volume II

893.01/293: Telegram

The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]

Peking, June 30, 1928—3 p.m.
[Received June 30—10:10 a.m.]

503. Department’s 202, June 23, 3 p.m.

1. Although the Department’s telegram has been carefully considered, I have found it difficult, due to the almost complete aloofness which the Nationalist authorities have thus far maintained, to make any helpful suggestions. They have maintained thus far a diplomatic vacuum, which may be either in pursuance of a deliberate policy of acting independently of problems of an international nature or a result of their preoccupation with the task of reorganization.

2. I had occasion, even before the Department’s 189, June 15, 1 p.m.,⁶⁵ was received, to remind P. W. Kuo, who called upon me as the personal representative of C. T. Wang,⁶⁶ of the attitude of the United States Government in regard to tariff matters, as communicated by me last February to Huang Fu.⁶⁷ Although he gave me assurance that these views would be communicated to Wang and that Wang would be much interested in them, no further reference to the subject has been made by him.

3. I have learned, meanwhile, of certain preparations which are being made with the apparent purpose of reconvening the Tariff Conference, the sessions of which were discontinued in 1926.⁶⁸

4. Wang is expected to visit Peking in the near future. It is my hope that it may be possible at that time to gain some conception of the purposes and the procedure which the Nationalist authorities have in mind. Until it has been possible to gain a clear conception of what it is the Nationalists contemplate and of the temper in which it may be anticipated they will approach the subject, I am impelled to request authority to postpone the making of the statement which the Department requests in its telegram in regard to the steps that should be taken in order to achieve the objectives outlined in that telegram.

MacMurray

65. Ante, p. 181.
66. Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Nationalist Government at Nanking.
67. Predecessor of C. T. Wang as Nationalist Minister of Foreign Affairs. For record of conversation, see memorandum of Feb. 26, 1928, by the Third Secretary of Legation in China, p. 410.
68. See Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. i, pp. 833 ff; ibid., 1926, vol. i, pp. 743 ff.