793.003/750½
Memorandum by the American Minister in China (Johnson) of a Conversation With the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs (C. T. Wang)70
I saw Dr. Wang today and told him that I had communicated to my Government his letter to me of June 12th71 requesting that negotiations in regard to extraterritoriality be transferred to China and completed here in view of the resignation of the Chinese Minister at Washington. I told him that my Government, in reply to this request, [Page 880] indicated a desire that the discussions now going on in Washington between Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Wei72 of the Chinese Legation should be permitted to continue until the texts regarding general guarantees had been completed. It was my Government’s idea that they would complete discussions of everything except the question of reserved areas and that when the texts had been agreed upon there they would be referred to me for discussion with him. I said I thought that in the meantime I would return to Peiping and come to Shanghai later on to complete this matter with him.
Dr. Wang at first stated that he preferred to have the whole matter brought here but when I explained to him that the Department is referring all matters to the law officers of the Department and that I thought it would save a good deal of time if we could have these matters thrashed out there before referring them out here he stated that he was willing to do this and that he would give the necessary instructions. He asked me when I thought the documents would be here and I told him I thought they would not arrive until the first week in August at the earliest; that I would probably be ready to come down soon after that.
Dr. Wang stated that he wanted to lay all of his cards on the table in regard to the question of reserved areas. He said that the British had first asked for the reservation of Shanghai and Tientsin for a period of ten years, having conceded Hankow and Canton, and that they had ultimately compromised on the question of Shanghai by agreeing that Shanghai should be reserved from Chinese jurisdiction for a period of five years, it being understood that the British and the Chinese might enter into negotiations at any time for the transfer of Shanghai to Chinese jurisdiction, either at the end of the five year period or at any time after the five years had expired and up to ten years; that in case of no agreement Shanghai should be reserved for a period of ten years, then automatically coming under Chinese jurisdiction. As regards Tientsin they had agreed that Tientsin should be transferred to Chinese jurisdiction at the expiration of five years. He said the only reason why the treaty had not been initialled at this time was because of the insistence of the British for the reservation of Tientsin. He said that he had personally agreed to the reservation of Tientsin but he was sure that his Government would not consent. He said he wanted to enter with the American Government, through me, a serious plea that we would not ask for the reservation of Tientsin. He said the reason why the Chinese Government could not consent to the reservation of Tientsin was that it had no international aspect as had Shanghai and that if the Chinese Government consented to its reservation this would leave the door open for the Japanese [Page 881] to demand the reservation of Japanese concessions and the South Manchuria Railway zone, to which the Chinese could never consent.
Dr. Wang also stated that the British, in connection with their agreement, had consented to the taxation of British subjects within the Settlement area at Shanghai on the same basis as the Chinese.