793.003/125: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Dawes) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 15—2:40 p.m.]
191. Reference the Embassy’s despatch No. 59, July 8,81 due to reach the Department July 16. Its enclosure 3 contains an important statement by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on China.82 While discussing this statement today in connection with the Department’s 172, July 10, 5 p.m., the Foreign Office stated that the proposed commercial treaty had been drafted last winter in an attempt to embody in the form of a treaty all the problems which relate solely to China and Great Britain, in the hope that thereby Anglo-Chinese trade relations would be improved; hence the international question of extraterritoriality was not mentioned in this proposed draft. In reply to the proposed commercial treaty, the Chinese submitted the draft of a text which evidently was based on the 1926 Austro-Chinese treaty.83 As yet, however, no date has been set for the tributary conference which the Foreign Secretary mentioned in his remarks. The Foreign Office states that Sir Miles Lampson also discussed the subject of extraterritorial rights and, referring to the four points Dr. Wang raised, said that the British attitude remained unchanged on the subject and was based on the recommendations in the 1926 report of the Extraterritoriality Commission.
After further discussion I shall again telegraph a report.