793.94/5852b
The Department of State to the British Embassy
Aide-Mémoire
Referring to the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of January 28, 1933, communicating to the Department certain explanations of the British Government with regard to the proposed representations to the Japanese Government on the subject of alleged abuses of privileges at Shanhaikwan under the Boxer Protocol of 1901, the Department appreciates the courtesy of having been informed, both in Washington and in London, of the British Government’s views on this important matter.
[Page 141]The Department, having given serious thought both to the proposition raised in the British Embassy’s aide-mémoire of January 23, 1933, and to the elucidation thereof communicated in the aide-mémoire under reference, feels that action at this time on the part of the American Government either in relation to the alleged abuses by Japan at Shanhaikwan of privileges under the Protocol of 1901 or in relation to the general question of the rights and obligations of the signatory powers, arising out of or under the Protocol, would be likely to do more harm than good. Also, the Department feels that any useful purpose which might be served by action at this time in connection with this matter might be served to greater advantage through representations made by the British Ambassador in Tokyo than by any joint or separate representations in which the American Government participated.
The Department wishes, however, to assure the British Government, as it has already assured the Chinese Legation here, that, if future developments should more specifically than at present involve the provisions of the Protocol of 1901, the American Government would expect to give consideration to those developments as the necessity arose and in the light of this Government’s rights and obligations thereunder.