Office of the Historian

893.102 S/217: Telegram

The Chargé in China (Perkins) to the Secretary of State

Peiping, January 13, 1930—3 p.m.
[Received January 14—11:05 a.m.12]

42. My 1203, November [December] 30, [1929,] 2 p.m., last sentence.13

1. Following is translation of reply of Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

“I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s telegram concerning the request of the Shanghai Power Company for the stamping of deeds.

The matter of the stamping and issuance of deeds has been turned over by the Bureau of Survey to the Special Municipal Council of Shanghai for action. It is requested that the company be instructed to communicate direct with the Municipal Council concerning the matter.”

2. Although this reply superficially appears innocuous, I am inclined to question the advisability of accepting the procedure suggested [Page 346] in the Ministry’s final paragraph, since, following the abolition of the Bureaus of Foreign Affairs14 and the promulgation of the mandate of December 28,15 I am apprehensive lest, by having the American individual rate [payers?] and companies concerned negotiate directly with the Chinese officials in individual cases, the Ministry’s position implying that foreign Consuls shall no longer have the right to intervene on behalf of their nationals (see procedure transmitted in Legation’s 809 of September 10, 5 p.m.,16 especially articles 2, 3, and 8) appear to have been acquiesced in by the Legation. Furthermore, the importance of the interests involved would seem to make it likely that any precedent created at this time will prove a decisive factor in determining procedure in similar cases affecting American interests. Department’s instructions by naval radio are respectfully requested.

Perkins
  1. Telegram in two sections.↩
  2. Not printed.↩
  3. See Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, pp. 675 ff.↩
  4. See telegram of December 28, 1929, from the Consul at Nanking, ibid., p. 666.↩
  5. Ibid., p. 675.↩