893.05/224
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State (Johnson)
The Chinese Minister came in at my request. I told the Minister that I had just seen a telegram from China stating that the judge of the Provisional Court at Shanghai had announced that on and after January 1, 1930 no new cases would be heard by that court.33 I referred to the fact that negotiations were now in process between delegations of the interested parties and the Chinese Government for [Page 740] a revision of the situation as it concerned that Court and that I hoped that he would say to his Government that in view of these negotiations and in view of the fact that there was a good chance of their arriving at conclusions that would be mutually acceptable I hoped that they would make provision to continue the machinery of that court until the negotiations now going forward could be completed. The Minister asked me how long these negotiations would take. I told him that I could not tell; that I had reason to believe that they would not take so very long, but that they could not be completed before January 1. The Minister remarked that there would be some holidays during which the delegations would not function. I told him that he must remember that criminals did not take any holidays and that the police could take no holidays and that it was necessary for some court to function for the purpose of keeping the situation clear, for an impossible situation would be made if there was no court. I said that the only thing that I desired to lay before him clearly was our hope that his Government would not leave the International Settlement without some judicial machinery after January 1 and would make some provision for continuing the present machinery until new machinery could be installed. He said that he would communicate this to his Government.