Office of the Historian

761.93 Outer Mongolia/7: Telegram

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

Nanking, April 7, 1936—6 p.m.
[Received 9:49 p.m.36]

83. 1. The Embassy has obtained from the Foreign Office a copy in English of the following communiqué issued to the press late this afternoon:

2. “Following official confirmation of the conclusion of a mutual assistance protocol between the Soviet Union and Outer Mongolia, the Waichiaopu has lodged a vigorous protest with the Soviet Government declaring that the Chinese Government can, under no circumstances, recognize such a protocol and is in no wise bound by it.

The Waichiaopu recalls that the Soviet Union unequivocally pledged itself, in article 5 of the Sino-Soviet Agreement of May 31, 1924,37 to recognize Outer Mongolia as an integral part of China and to respect China’s sovereignty therein.

The action of the Soviet Government in concluding the protocol with Outer Mongolia, in the opinion of the Waichiaopu, constitutes not only an infringement of China’s sovereignty but also a breach of its solemn pledge to the Chinese Government.

The protocol, it is learned, was signed on March 12. It provides that the two parties will come to the aid of each other in case of an attack by a third party.”

Peck
  1. Telegram in two sections.↩
  2. Signed at Peking, Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, pp. 495, 496.↩