793.943 Manchuria/29: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 6—12:40 p.m.]
733. Following from Mukden:
“No. 5, November 5, 9 p.m. A treaty with Japan was signed at Hsinking today ending Japanese extraterritorial rights in Manchuria, yielding administrative jurisdiction in the South Manchuria Railway zone, subjecting Japanese subjects to local laws, et cetera. To the treaty which consists of seven articles and goes into effect December 1st are annexed two supplementary agreements, each with an annexed memorandum of reciprocally understood matters. Translation will be forwarded in due course.53
In the Government manifesto concerning the treaty issued this afternoon appears the following statement:
‘The view and intention of the Government with regard to the status of foreigners other than Japanese in our country was made clear in the Foreign Minister’s declaration of July 1, 1936.54 The Government takes this occasion to state that it intends to abolish on December 1 the extraterritorial-like treatment heretofore permitted these foreigners as a matter of grace. However, in the application of laws to these foreigners and other dealings with them the Government will strive for justice and harmony, and intelligently to protect their legitimate rights.’
The Foreign Minister made a declaration to the same effect, ending it with the statement that in the treatment of extraterritorial countries the authorities will exercise every care also that these foreigners need not be ‘harassed by needless anxiety’.”
Repeated to Nanking.
- Not printed.↩
- See telegram No. 333, July 2, 1936, 11 a.m., from the First Secretary of Embassy in China, Foreign Relations, 1936, vol. iv, p. 230.↩