Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1930, Volume II

793.003/330

The Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck) to the British Chargé (Campbell)¹

undated

Referring to Mr. Campbell’s letter of March 4, sentence which reads as follows:

“By this time however the presentation of the State Department’s outline of possible provisions of agreement to the Chinese Minister on January 23rd, without any previous warning which might have enabled His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom to make any necessary adjustments in their policy, had, in His Majesty’s Government’s view, led to its being impossible to negotiate with any prospect of success for the safeguards abandoned in the outline, and indeed attempts to secure such safeguards may now merely give rise to friction and to agitation directed against the power concerned.”

I desire to comment as follows:

(1) In my opinion the British Government attributes to the matter of January 23rd a character which that matter does not possess and is unduly apprehensive with regard to its effect upon the situation.

(2) The materials given by me to the Chinese Minister on January 23rd were not “the State Department’s outline of possible provisions of agreement”; they were an outline of a plan submitted for purposes of study given by Mr. Hornbeck to Dr. Wu at a certain stage in conversations between these two persons, which conversations have covered and are dealing with a wide range of factors and possibilities, they did not and do not constitute a proposal or involve a commitment; and they were and are materials, not a completed outline of possible proposals.

(3) With regard to the question of “previous warning” to the British Government,—neither in connection with the matter of January 23rd nor at any other stage in the conversations between myself and the Chinese Minister has there transpired anything concerning which “warning” needed to be given. The American Government has not abandoned the policy indicated in its communications to the Chinese Government of August 10 and November 1.² With regard to steps taken, the effort has been made at all times promptly to inform the British Government of important developments.

(4) With regard to “safeguards abandoned in the outline” it should be noted that in the various paragraphs of the materials in question no small number of safeguards are included; and, further, that it is not to be inferred that there is in the minds of the drafters of these materials nothing further or other than the provisions which appear in this particular document.

(5) With regard to the question of securing safeguards, it is believed that the Chinese Minister understands very well that the Chinese Government can scarcely expect to conclude with any of the major powers a treaty by the provisions of which extraterritorial rights will be given up immediately or unconditionally; and that the Chinese Minister understands that any proposal which may be made as such by Mr. Hornbeck will include a substantial body of safeguarding provisions.

[File copy not signed]

1. Notation on margin by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs, dated March 10, 1930: “Shown to and read by Mr. Campbell.”
2. See telegram No. 254, August 1, 1929, to the Minister in China and telegram No. 958, November 4, 1929, from the Minister in China, Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, pp. 596 and 616.