793.943 Manchuria/34: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart), at Peiping
382. Your 784, November 26, 4 p.m. Please instruct the Consul at Mukden to proceed to Hsinking at his earliest convenience and to [Page 942] leave with the appropriate authorities as a record of an oral communication a memorandum reading as follows:
“Reference is made to a letter received by the Harbin office of the National City Bank of New York from the Department of Economics at Hsinking, stating that a recently promulgated ‘law concerning foreign juridical persons’ ‘naturally’ applies to all foreign firms, and requesting that preparation be made to register and to appoint a representative in accordance with the law. The Government of the United States considers that this law, which apparently contemplates the assertion by the authorities in Manchuria of jurisdiction over American juridical persons is inapplicable to American nationals and firms in view of the extraterritorial rights of nationals of the United States in Manchuria which are granted by treaties between the United States and China. The Government of the United States therefore is impelled to register emphatic objection to any attempt of the authorities of Manchuria to exercise jurisdiction over American nationals and to make full reservation in regard to the treaty rights of the United States and its nationals.”
The Consul at Mukden should be instructed promptly to notify Tokyo by telegram as soon as he leaves for Hsinking to make these representations as the Embassy at Tokyo is being instructed to make representations to the Japanese Foreign Office at the same time.
Please repeat to Harbin and Tokyo for their information.