793.003/5571/9
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson) of a Conversation With the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs (C. T. Wang)74
I handed to Dr. C. T. Wang today a memorandum giving the text of a statement handed to Dr. C. C. Wu, the Chinese Minister at Washington, on March 11th, stating that the Government of the United States felt that at this juncture negotiations in regard to extraterritoriality might be facilitated if the American Minister to China were authorized to discuss with the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs outstanding issues in connection with the principles involved.
Dr. Wang stated that Dr. Wu had been instructed to inform the Department that the Chinese Government regretted that the Government of the United States was unable to accede to the desires of the Government of China in regard to the three principles of co-judges, criminal jurisdiction and reserved areas, and that the mere transfer of negotiations to Nanking at this stage would have no effect upon the firm position of the Chinese Government in this matter. Dr. Wu had also been instructed to say that it was hoped that Dr. Wu would be able to sign a treaty should one result from the discussions now going on.
I said that there was no thought on the part of the Department to deprive Dr. Wu of this honor, but I felt that the Department had all along been under the impression that the Chinese Government was willing to negotiate on the basis laid down in the exchange of notes of 1929 when the United States Government had indicated its readiness to negotiate on a basis of gradual relinquishment of extraterritorial privileges.75
Dr. Wang said that the Chinese Government had never accepted gradual relinquishment as a basis for negotiation, either as to type of case or as to geographic areas.
I said that to the best of my knowledge Dr. Wu had never informed us of this attitude and by his silence and his willingness to negotiate The Department had assumed that this basis was acceptable to the Chinese Government. On this Dr. Wang made no reply but said he was ready to discuss the nature of the various legal guarantees such as duties of counselors, number and location of special chambers, et cetera, but there was no ground for discussion of the main principles [Page 771] involved. The Chinese Government was firmly determined to stand for the immediate relinquishment of civil as well as criminal jurisdiction and the abolishment of reserved areas. All that remained was for the United States Government to indicate its position regarding those principles. I told him that I would inform my Government.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in China without covering despatch; received May 12. Substance reported by the Minister in his telegram of March 19, 1931, 7 p.m., from Nanking; received March 19, 4:12 p.m. (793.003/563)↩
- See telegram No. 254, August 1, 1929, 11 a.m., to the Minister in China, Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. ii, p. 596.↩