893.5123/14: Telegram

The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State

277. My 276, September 23, 9 a.m.

1.
So far as this office can learn the only formal replies sent by foreign diplomatic missions to the Foreign Office regarding application of income tax to foreign residents have been from the French and American Embassies (see Peiping’s September 3, 2 p.m., paragraph 3).
2.
Chargé d’Affaires of Belgium expressed to me yesterday the personal view that although the treaty of November 22, 1928,85 might be interpreted as requiring payment of the tax by his nationals, nevertheless he felt that the treaty would warrant their claim to most-favored-nation treatment. He had received no instructions.
3.
The German Chargé d’Affaires yesterday told me he had sent in no reply but that although without extra territorial jurisdiction Germany would claim exemption on the ground of an oral assurance given by Foreign Minister C. T. Wang86 some years ago that surrender of extraterritorial jurisdiction would not subject German nationals to discriminatory treatment in matters of this sort.
4.
Sent to the Department and Peiping.
Peck
  1. Treaty of Amity and Commerce, signed at Nanking, November 22, 1928, League of Nations Treaty Series, vol. lxxxvii, p. 288.
  2. C. T. Wang, Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs at Peiping, 1924–25, and at Nanking, 1928–31.