793.003/293
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Referring to the British Aide-Mémoire of March 4 covered by Mr. Campbell’s letter to Mr. Hornbeck of March 4.
In the last paragraph of the Aide-Mémoire there occurs the statement “Mr. Johnson informed Sir M. Lampson that the Government of the United States were submitting a communication through the Chinese Minister at Washington embodying the principle of foreign legal counselors and not co-judges”. If Mr. Johnson informed Sir M. Lampson “that the Government of the United States were submitting a communication through the Chinese Minister at Washington”, Mr. Johnson was in error. It cannot too insistently be pointed out that “the Government of the United States” did not “submit” any “communication”: the transaction in question consisted of the informal submission by Mr. Hornbeck of a memorandum to Dr. Wu.