893.05/169: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 9—4:50 p.m.]
875. (1) A detailed study regarding revision of the 1926 rendition agreement is being made by a committee which the interested Ministers appointed, consisting of representatives of the British, French, and United States Legation Chinese secretariats. A draft proposal, hereafter called “scheme A”, has now been completed, to [Page 703] be submitted to the interested Ministers, to establish a court along the lines which I indicated in my 829, September 14, 6 p.m., paragraph (5). The text of this proposal will follow in my next telegram.
(2) An alternative proposal has also been prepared by the committee in the form of instructions for the delegates who are designated to negotiate the revision of the existing agreement on the Provisional Court. Because these instructions, covering the ultimate concessions which may be made during the negotiations, are too confidential to be reported by radio, I shall not, unless so instructed by the Department, telegraph this long document; but if, after consulting the interested Ministers, they should be disposed to recommend such revision as therein indicated, I shall duly report.
(3) My British, Dutch, and French colleagues and I, as a matter of personal judgment, warmly approve scheme A as the most hopeful solution available for the Provisional Court question. I am informed by my British colleague, however, that the British Government, hitherto working along the lines of merely revising the existing agreement, has sent him instructions not to commit himself on the subject until there shall have been more time to consider scheme A. The Minister is hopeful that his Government will give its approval.
(4) The four Ministers who are principally concerned are strongly of the opinion that the attempt by the experts satisfactorily to revise the present Provisional Court system has made it clear that there is no possibility along that line of reaching a satisfactory and workable arrangement with the authorities of China; that such an arrangement could not be obtained if we wanted it and would not be wanted if it could be obtained.
(5) The six interested Legation heads and later the entire diplomatic body will shortly consider the two proposals mentioned. If I were able to state that I have your support for a plan along the lines of scheme A, the adoption of such would be greatly furthered and expedited.