Office of the Historian

793.003/325: Telegram

The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Acting Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]
Peiping, March 22, 1930—3 p.m.
[Received March 22—7:47 a.m.]

213. Reference Department’s 97, March 18, 11 a.m.,5 and previous telegrams. On March 20 I had a long conversation with Sir Miles Lampson and read to him the above-mentioned telegram. The British Minister said this relieved his mind since it indicated our willingness to cooperate as regards co-judges and criminal jurisdiction. I informed Sir Miles also of the contents of my telegram from Shanghai, March 6, 5 p.m., to the Department. I find that he feels the need of having some concrete proposal which may serve as a basis for negotiations when he resumes discussion with the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs and that he has worked out in draft form such concrete proposals, forwarding them to his Government by telegraph for consideration while he is awaiting instructions at Peiping. The Minister read me this draft, a rather long document consisting of 16 articles, a mosaic of their proposals, the January 23 American draft of study materials for the Chinese Minister at Washington, Chinese proposals, and precedents from the Persian,6 Turkish,7 and Siamese8 treaties. Then I told Sir Miles that I thought this material furnished a basis for a possible concrete proposal to be worked out here by him and myself and offered to our respective Governments, and also possibly to Japan, for their possible acceptance as a common basis for [Page 413] Chinese discussion. The American Counselor, Perkins, and the British Legation’s Chinese Secretary, Teichman, now are engaged on the draft, and we hope shortly to be able to submit it.

Johnson
  1. Not printed; it quoted Department’s memorandum of March 17 to the British Embassy, p. 408.↩
  2. See The Persia Order in Council, 1928, London, May 7, 1928, British and Foreign State Papers, 1928, pt. i, vol. cxxviii, p. 49; also notice of May 11, 1928, ibid., p. 52.↩
  3. Convention signed at Lausanne, July 24, 1923; League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. xxviii, p. 151.↩
  4. Treaty and notes signed at Bangkok, March 10, 1909, and procès-verbal of July 6; British and Foreign State Papers, vol. cii, pp. 126 and 799.↩