893.05/176: Telegram
The Minister in China ( MacMurray ) to the Secretary of State
942. Department’s 335, October 15, 5 p.m.
- 1.
- British Minister recently informed interested colleagues that
under instructions of his Government he suggest[s] Senior Minister’s
note of September 19th be now followed up
“by informing the Chinese Government that, having completed our preliminary study of the question, we are ready to open negotiations through our representatives appointed for the purpose at such time and place as the Chinese Government may designate.
I would further propose, again on the explicit instructions of my Government, that our negotiators should be provided with copies of both schemes A and B, not for presentation to the Chinese Government, but merely in order that they may have, for their guidance, statements of the tentative ideas of general principle which have resulted from our preliminary study of the subject. Our negotiators should then be given, as in 1926, as free a hand as possible in seeking a solution within the limits indicated in these schemes. It seems probable to my Government that the Chinese Government contemplate the abolition of the present court and the establishment in its place of a purely Chinese court fitting into the existing Chinese judicial system. It should, I am instructed to say, be the aim of our negotiators at the conference table, after calling upon the Chinese representatives to explain their desiderata, to seek to graft on to such proposals as the Chinese may have to make such of the recommendations in scheme A or B or some combination of the two as may seem best calculated to attain the objects which we had in view, namely, the introduction of the necessary safeguards for the maintenance of law and order and of the existing municipal authority in the International Settlement and the establishment of some machinery for the resolution of disputes between the Chinese judiciary and the foreign executive of the Settlement.
It will be seen from the above statement of the procedure which His Majesty’s Government desire to see followed in the matter that while authorizing me to adopt schemes A and B as bases for our negotiators to work on, my Government do not approve of the presentation of my [any] cut-and-dried scheme, whether of the nature of A or B, to the Chinese Government. More particularly they consider it undesirable to assume at the present stage any direct responsibility for scheme A, since it appears to them very unlikely that the Chinese Government will consider any plan which actually increases the foreign control over and the foreign element in a Chinese court exercising jurisdiction over Chinese citizens. Should, therefore, any individual foreign representative in these negotiations desire to present a plan of the nature of scheme A to the Chinese Government, [Page 709] this should be done separately and apart from joint negotiations and without committing the British representative to any responsibility therefor.”
- 2.
- At a consultation yesterday among American, British, Dutch, French and Japanese Ministers it was decided that since it is now no longer possible for the interested Ministers to take a concrete initiative in presenting scheme A as a joint proposal, it would be advisable for the Senior Minister now to inform the Minister for Foreign Affairs of our readiness to appoint delegates to negotiate on the question and in a subsequent note to give the names of the negotiators thus designated by the various Ministers concerned. Inasmuch as the British Minister made clear that his Government is not actually opposed to scheme A, the other Ministers (except the Japanese, who has no instructions in the matter but is personally disposed to favor that proposal) felt it might be possible at an opportune moment during the negotiations to present scheme A in the knowledge that it would receive the support of the American, Dutch and French delegations.
- 3.
- At a meeting of the whole diplomatic body this morning Senior
Minister was authorized to send today in behalf of his interested
colleagues the following note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs:
“I have the honor to refer Your Excellency to my note of September 19th on the subject [of] the proposed negotiations regarding the reform of the Provisional Court in the International Settlement at Shanghai in which I informed Your Excellency that the interested Heads of Legation were examining the position and stated they expected to make a further communication on the subject in due course.
I am desired by my colleagues, the interested Heads of Legation, to inform Your Excellency that having completed their preliminary study of the subject they are now ready to open the negotiations in question through their representatives to be appointed for the purpose at such time and place as may be convenient to the Chinese Government.”
- 4.
- I beg to request the Department’s authorization to designate as American delegates both Cunningham97 and Jacobs98 (in order to allow greater expenditure and less interference with the work of the Consulate General since it is probable that the presence of both would not be necessary during the whole of the negotiations) and Bucknell.99 I further respectfully request authorization for necessary travel and per diem expenses for Cunningham, Jacobs and Bucknell and a reasonable allotment to enable the delegation to engage a competent stenographer.
- 5.
- Since I feel strongly that it would be advantageous for the negotiators to propose a concrete plan along the lines suggested above in the second paragraph and anticipate neither the Dutch nor the French would be in a position to make such a proposal so appropriately or effectively, I further beg to request authorization for the American delegates to submit scheme A for consideration if and when a suitable opportunity is presented.