Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1931, The Far East, Volume III

793.003/763: Telegram

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

[Paraphrase⁹³]

Washington, August 10, 1931—2 p.m.

270. Your 471, July 30, 10 a.m.

(1) It is provided in the Constitution, article 3, section 2, that Federal courts shall have jurisdiction in cases between a State, or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects. The Federal Judicial Code, section 24, paragraph 1 (c) contains similar provisions.

(2) Since cases not thus specified are in the jurisdiction reserved by the Constitution to the States and since endeavoring to change such jurisdiction by treaty doubtless would be regarded in certain quarters as encroaching upon States’ rights, hence encountering opposition on constitutional grounds, the Department does not feel it would be justified to undertake the placing, by treaty and supplementary legislation, of Chinese aliens under the jurisdiction of Federal courts in all personal status matters.

(3) If the Department’s draft of article XIV would be made more acceptable to the Chinese by such a change, the Department would be willing to revise the clause which reads “the applicable laws of the United States of America shall be applied by the Chinese courts” to read “the applicable Federal laws of the United States of America (or ‘the provisions of the District of Columbia Code’) shall be applied by the Chinese courts.”

(4) In the Department’s draft of article XIV, third paragraph, third sentence, the word “defended” should be altered to “filed”.

Castle

93. Quotations not paraphrased.