893.102S/1411
Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Hornbeck)
The port of Shanghai is one of the world’s great trade centers. At that port there is located an “International Settlement”. In that Settlement there reside some 66,000 “foreigners” and about a million Chinese. Among the “foreigners” there are some 3,800 Americans. That Settlement is administered by a Municipal Council which is elected by the local taxpayers, which is of mixed (international) personnel, and which has among its members American nationals. The municipality maintains a police force which is of mixed personnel and maintains a volunteer armed force which is made up of several units of foreign nationalities, recruited from among the foreign residents, subject to active duty for general policing and defense duties in event of “emergencies”. On the police force there are usually a few Americans, and in the volunteer forces there is an American unit. Foreign governments regularly have present at Shanghai some naval vessels, and, since 1927, several foreign governments have had at Shanghai temporarily landed armed contingents. Among the naval vessels present (regularly) are some American vessels, and among the landed forces there is an American contingent which at present consists of marines to the number of approximately 1,100.
Among the responsibilities of the American Government in regard to Shanghai the first is the ordinary responsibility of affording appropriate protection to American interests. These interests are in particular the security and the general rights of 3,800 American nationals, [Page 691] a physical property and investment interest aggregating $90,000,000, and a participation interest in the trade which is carried on through that port. (Note: About one-half of the foreign trade of China centers at Shanghai.) Second, we have a responsibility which arises out of and relates to the unusual (quasi-international) character of the port of Shanghai, the historical and actual facts in the “set-up” of the International Settlement, and the special treaties with and in regard to China. The rights, obligations, and interests of the various nationalities represented in the make-up of the local population, together with those of the various countries concerned there, are substantially and tenaciously interwoven. The web is one in the weaving of which the American Government and American nationals have from the very beginning of the life of the Settlement, more than ninety years ago, taken part. The American Government at the outset insisted and has throughout nearly a century insisted that this country should enjoy equal rights (and “privileges”) with other countries at Shanghai and equal rights of participation in the affairs, the administration, the defense, etc., of the International Settlement. We have responsibilities with and toward the other nations in regard to the situation at and the future of Shanghai. While we might at any moment by a political act turn our backs upon our political responsibilities in regard to Shanghai, it is questionable whether we could thus get away from our legal obligations there, and it is certain that we could not thus dispose of our moral obligations.
The landed armed forces which the various foreign powers, this country included, have since 1927 maintained at Shanghai were landed for the purpose of contributing to the maintenance of order in and to the security of the International Settlement. Each foreign power of course envisaged the protection of its own nationals, especially as regards life; but, it was and is realized that the maximum of assurance with regard to the lives of individuals could best be obtained through defense of the area within which these individuals in the aggregate are resident. Disorder in or an invasion of the Settlement from outside would endanger all foreign nationals and therefore endanger individual foreigners of each and every nationality. The theory, therefore, upon which the police and the volunteer armed units and the landed forces of each and several nationalities are maintained and do function at Shanghai, is that local, foreign national and foreign international interests are both separately and collectively involved, and that the municipality and each of the foreign governments concerned have and shall have both separate national and collective international responsibilities in relation to the problem of order and security. There exist no treaties or formal international commitments providing that the various political authorities concerned shall maintain these armed forces, or prescribing the proportions or limitations [Page 692] which shall prevail among these forces, as to numbers, disposal, etc.; but, the presence and the plans with regard to the functioning of these forces rest on considerations of experience and of informal commitment to the idea of cooperation, over a period of years, among and on the part of the major powers concerned.
The Shanghai International Settlement has been and is a going quasi-international enterprise. All of the powers enjoy rights and benefits by virtue of its existence and of the various agencies which contribute thereto. All of them have obligations to each other, severally and collectively, in connection therewith.
In 1927, the presence of the foreign landed armed forces effectively discouraged the threatened invasion of the Settlement by highly excited and none too well disciplined Chinese “nationalists” troops. In 1932, the presence of these foreign landed armed forces contributed enormously toward the maintenance of order in the Settlement in the presence of a migration of many thousands of Chinese refugees from an outlying portion into the main area of the Settlement; also, contributed toward preventing (or insuring against) a retreat into the main area of the Settlement of Chinese soldiery who were in conflict with Japanese troops and who, but for the operation of the “defense plan” (which involved a disposal on certain agreed-upon lines of the various foreign armed contingents), might easily have retreated in disorder into that area. In neither of these cases was the presence of nor were the acts of the foreign landed armed contingents (with the exception of the Japanese) provocative; in neither instance did they lead to armed clashes; and in both instances they contributed effectively to the maintenance of order, the giving of a sense of security, protection of life, and prevention of destruction of property. In the 1932 instance, both the British and the American Governments hastily reenforced their landed armed contingents, the British with troops from Hong Kong, the Americans with troops from Manila. The Japanese and the Chinese had begun fighting, in a part of and on a border of the Settlement. There came from no source, so far as the undersigned is aware, any criticism of the action of the American Government in the playing of its part in thus contributing to the meeting of the situation of emergency and of danger to the lives of the foreign, including American, residents of the International Settlement.
It is believed that with due regard for its existing responsibilities and for general and particular considerations incident to the “good neighbor policy,” the American Government could not and should not at this time make any withdrawal of any of its armed forces at Shanghai; and that we should expect, in the event of there developing at Shanghai a critical situation—which does not now seem likely—even [Page 693] to have to give consideration to the possibility of increasing, as we did in 1932, those forces.