Office of the Historian

793. 003/618: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Nanking (Peck)

[Paraphrase]
Washington, April 25, 1931—noon.

27. For Minister Johnson: Your April 23, 9 a.m.; April 23, 4 p.m.; and April 23, 5 p.m.,13 all from Nanking.

(1)
While previously and at present prepared to let the British lead in the extraterritoriality negotiations, the Department is not yet willing to go so far as even to discuss the inclusion of the Shanghai area in the new treaty’s scope of application. It is the feeling of the Department that Tientsin’s exclusion should also be insisted upon and that a strong effort should be made to exclude Hankow and Canton. Further, for the reasons given in the Department’s 23, April 15, 5 p.m., to Nanking, it is not yet ready to consider less than 10 years for the period of validity.
(2)
The Department has been and still is willing to meet the Chinese Government’s wishes regarding the place for signature of the new treaty. However, in view of the issuance by the Chinese Government to Minister C. C. Wu of full powers presented to the Department in 192814 and of the position which the Chinese Government and Minister here recently took when the Department intimated its wish for transfer of the negotiations to Nanking (reference the Department’s 12, March 14, 4 p.m., and 14, March 16, 5 p.m., to Nanking, and your March 19, 7 p.m., from Nanking15), it is the Department’s feeling that [Page 810] if and when action is taken to issue full powers to you, this should be predicated upon the Department’s receiving a formal request, communicated through Minister Wu, from the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs, rather than a mere oral suggestion to you, as your April 23, 5 p.m., reported.
(3)
The Department surmises that the Foreign Minister is trying to precipitate final action by either Great Britain or the United States, or by both, by stressing the date of May 5 and by intimating to each one that the other is about to sign. While continuing to do everything possible to expedite the successful termination of the negotiations, the Department is of opinion that, although it should be possible to reach a complete accord soon, yet, after all issues and the substance of the agreement have been settled, it will be necessary carefully to scrutinize the text. This will require time. As the American and British Governments are both making sincere efforts in meeting Chinese wishes regarding the questions involved, the Department deprecates the Chinese Government’s efforts to rush matters in a way which is, as the British Minister is quoted in your March 30, 11 a.m., paragraph 8,16 as saying, “not customary among governments”.
(4)
Joseph E. Jacobs and Ken-Shen Weigh, Chinese Legation Secretary, have reached a tentative accord regarding the 12 articles of the April 8 Chinese draft;17 this subject will be discussed in the next few days with Minister Wu. The text of their accord is in substance the same as the Chinese-British accord which was reported in your March 17, noon, and March 28, 10 a.m., with amendments in your April 19, 2 p.m., and April 19, 4 p.m., though there are a number of changes in wording. It is the Department’s hope to be able soon to telegraph to you the tentative texts of these articles, along with tentative texts of other articles on remaining subjects which the Department believes should be a part of the new treaty. The matters which your April 23, 4 p.m., reported will be taken into full account.
(5)
Lampson should be informed of the foregoing, and you may, in your discretion and insofar as seems advisable, inform Dr. C. T. Wang.
Stimson
  1. Latter not printed; see footnote 10, p. 808.↩
  2. See instruction No. 1026, October 29, 1928, to the Minister in China, Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. ii, p. 433.↩
  3. Latter not printed; see footnote 74, p. 770.↩
  4. Par. (8) not printed; text based on last two paragraphs of Minister’s memorandum of March 30, p. 784.↩
  5. Not printed.↩