893.05/298
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson) of a Conversation With the British Minister in China (Lampson)8
In the course of conversation with the British Minister today, Sir Miles asked me whether I had arranged for the use of the judges on the Commission provided for in the Provisional Court Agreement. I said no, this was a matter I wished to speak to him about. I said I had gone to C. T. Wang, and in the course of a conversation with him, I had explained that it was our desire to make this Commission as dignified as possible and we had some idea of using the judges of the two courts. I said that C. T. Wang had, without any hesitation and with every indication that his mind was already made up on the subject, stated that it was their purpose to appoint Mr. Hsu Moh, Chief of the Division of American and European Affairs in the Foreign Office, who had the rank of Assistant Minister, and Mr. Chien T’ai, a Counsellor in the Judicial Yuan who had the rank of Minister, as the Chinese representatives on this Commission.…
I told Sir Miles that I had called Mr. Jacobs into the conference and that I had learned from Mr. Jacobs that it had been the original idea to make of this Committee a kind of liaison between the consular authorities in the Settlement and the Chinese, and that Mr. Jacobs had also informed me that both Hsu Moh and Chien T’ai had been Chinese delegates to the Conference on the revision of the Provisional Court Agreement. I stated that, in my opinion, and in view of the Chinese proposal to appoint their recent delegates to serve on this Committee, it would serve our purpose if members of our delegation were also appointed.
Sir Miles suggested that we make a formal request of C. T. Wang to state who would be the Chinese appointees, whereupon we could [Page 344] take action. I agreed to this. He also agreed with me, that if the Chinese delegates were appointed, it would be sufficient to name men like Jacobs and Brenan on our side.9