Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1930, Volume II

711.933/250

The Department of State to the French Embassy⁴⁴

The Chinese Government did not at any time inform the American Government of its intention to make a declaration on the subject of extraterritoriality. However, it having been reported to the Secretary of State that the Chinese Ministers in London and in Paris had informed the British and the French Governments respectively that the Chinese Government intended to make on January 1st some move in connection with the subject of the abolition of extraterritoriality, a statement expressing certain views of the American Government was read to the Chinese Minister in Washington on December 28, 1929. The statement was as follows:

[Here follows text of undated statement printed in Foreign Relations, 1929, volume II, page 665.]

The American Government has been informed through its officers in China that on December 28 the Chinese Government issued a Mandate and on December 30 the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs published a statement⁴⁵ on the subject of jurisdiction over foreigners in China. The texts of this declaration and statement have been carefully examined and the examination leads to the conclusion that the Chinese Government has declared that hereafter foreigners in China shall obey Chinese law and that the Chinese Government is willing to negotiate with the foreign Powers concerned on the subject of steps to be taken beginning January 1, 1930, toward effecting the abolition of the extraterritorial jurisdiction now exercised by foreign Powers. The American Government does not discover in this action any evidence of intention on the part of the Chinese Government forthwith and by unilateral action to repudiate existing treaty provisions. The American Government perceives no objection to the signalizing of the date of January 1, 1930, as the date from which the taking of steps looking toward the gradual abolition of extraterritorial rights shall begin. The position of the American Government with regard to the question of negotiations looking toward the conclusion of an agreement on this subject was set forth in the concluding paragraphs of the American Government’s notes, through the American Minister to China, of August 10 and November 1, 1929.⁴⁶

Washington , January 4, 1930.

44. Handed to the Second Secretary of the French Embassy on January 6, 1930. A similar memorandum dated January 4 was sent to the British Embassy on January 9.
45. See telegrams of December 28 and 30, 1929, from the Consul at Nanking, Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, pp. 666 and 668.
46. See telegram No. 254, August 1, 1929, to the Minister in China, and telegram No. 958, November 4, 1929, from the Minister, Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, pp. 596 and 616.