Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1929, Volume II

711.933/250

The French Embassy to the Department of State⁵⁶

The Chinese Minister in Paris called at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 27th and announced that his Government intended to make a declaration on January 1st, upon extraterritoriality. He added that China had obtained from the British Government the promise that January 1st would be considered by them as the date of the starting point of negotiations in view of the suppression of that privilege and that the American Government had shown similar favorable dispositions. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs replied to the Chinese Minister as follows:

1. The French Government had informed, on several occasions, the Chinese Government, that the desires of the latter were being considered with sympathy and had let known the conditions to which the question of the suppression of extraterritoriality should be subordinated. Up to this day the Chinese Government has not made any precise proposals to the French Government. Consequently the latter does not find it possible to admit that January 1st 1930, should be the starting point of negotiations. The numerous notes exchanged between the French and Chinese Governments constitute already an exchange of views that the French Government is disposed to continue upon the basis of previous notes.

2. Among the conditions required by the French Government, the necessity for both parties to come to an agreement upon the principle of a basis for gradual evolution, is the principal one. The Chinese Government has not replied, as yet, whether they are of that opinion.

3. Under no circumstances the French Government could consent to the suppression of extraterritoriality in the form attributed by press dispatches to the Central Committee of Kouomingtang. Should the Chinese Government proceed to the unilateral denunciation of the Franco-Chinese Treaty of 1858, the French Government would reserve its full liberty of action in the presence of such an obvious violation of rights conceded to French citizens by a treaty, the revision of which, at the request of the French Government, is provided for every 12 years, the next period due to end on October 25th, 1932.

The Chinese Minister gave the promise to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to wire to his Government. M. Briand desires to bring the above-mentioned information to the attention of the Honorable Secretary of State./.

Washington , December 30, 1929.

56. An attached memorandum dated December 31, 1929, by W. H. Beck, Assistant to the Secretary of State, reads: “The attached was handed to the Secretary by the French Ambassador at Woodley yesterday.”