793.003/5578/9
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson)18
In the course of conversation today with Dr. C. T. Wang, Minister for Foreign Affairs, I referred to a conversation that I had had with Dr. Frank Lee, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, on April 23 in the course of which Dr. Lee had intimated that as I had expressed a hope that Great Britain and the United States might sign simultaneously identic agreements in regard to extraterritoriality and as Dr. Wang appeared to be optimistic that an agreement might shortly be reached, I might care to suggest to my Government the advisability of issuing full powers to me to sign. I said that I had telegraphed this suggestion to the Department of State and I had now received a reply to the effect that the Department had been and was still willing to meet the wishes of the Chinese Government in regard to the place where the new treaty should be signed but that in view of the Chinese Government’s issuance to Minister Wu of full powers presented in [Page 812] Washington in 1928 and in view of the attitude taken by the Chinese Government and Minister Wu recently when the American Government intimated its desire to transfer negotiations to Nanking, the Department felt that action in issuing full powers to me should be predicated upon a formal request by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in China to the Department of State through Minister Wu.
Dr. Wang stated that he had asked Frank Lee to make the suggestion to me when he had heard that the American Government hoped that it and the British Government would be able to sign identic agreements on the same day. He said that for his part he would have preferred that Dr. Wu sign the agreement as Dr. Wu had worked very hard in the matter. I stated that my preferences followed the same line, that I had no personal ambitions in the matter. Dr. Wang stated that he would telegraph Dr. Wu and keep him completely informed of the progress made in the discussions with the British Minister and that he would tell Dr. Wu that if it was expedient to do so he should make formal request of the Department of State to issue full powers to me.
I informed Dr. Wang that while the Department was continuing to do all that it could to expedite the successful conclusion of the negotiations it felt that although it should be possible soon to reach a complete accord, yet it would be necessary after agreement had been reached on all issues and on the substance of the agreement to give the text careful scrutiny. I said that the Department expected to take such time as might be necessary to scrutinize texts with a view to preventing as far as possible sources of misunderstanding and future friction.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister without covering despatch; received June 11. Substance reported by the Minister in pars. (2) and (3) of his telegram of April 27, 1931, 4 p.m., infra.↩