711.933/80
The Assistant Secretary of State (Johnson) to the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck)
My comment upon the suggestion of Doctor Wu, with regard to the employment of a number of foreign legal counsellors, who apparently will have no powers other than that of observers, who are to report to the Judicial Council on the operation of the Chinese Court, is that this suggestion amounts merely to saying that they will appoint foreigners to serve as employes of the Chinese Government and to take over the duties ordinarily performed by the diplomatic representatives of the foreign countries involved. It will become the duty of our diplomatic representatives, if and when we make a treaty giving up absolutely or gradually our extraterritorial rights, to observe without power of interference the working of Chinese courts, receive complaints from our nationals regarding the administration of justice and bring them to the notice of the Chinese Government in order to insure a strict observance of the Chinese law and also to insure the rendering of strict justice to persons of American nationality. I do not see what advantage this suggestion is to us.