793.003/964: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:25 p.m.]
5996. Department’s 5271, October 24, 11 a.m. I have received from Mr. Eden the following communication dated October 26:
“Thank you very much for letting me see the message from the Department of State dated the 24th October indicating that the Department had added a sentence to article V of the United States draft treaty with China on extraterritoriality.
“I am greatly obliged to you for this information and would ask you to convey to your Government our appreciation of their decision to include in their draft treaty a clause on the lines indicated in the message from the Department of State. The terms used are entirely satisfactory to us and we shall include a corresponding clause in our own draft treaty.
[“]I note that the United States draft treaty was handed to the Chinese Ambassador at 10:30 a.m. on the 24th October. A communication was made on that date both to the Chinese Chargé d’Affaires in London and to the Chinese Government in Chungking to the effect that His Majesty’s Government were still in consultation with the Governments of the Dominions and India but they expected their draft treaty to be closely similar to the United States Government’s draft with the addition of a clause covering the rendition of the British concessions at Tientsin and Canton; His Majesty’s Government hoped to be in a position to present their draft treaty to the Chinese Government in the very near future.”
The British draft of the treaty in its present form has been forwarded to me. Would you want me to cable it as it is or wait until the British have finished their consultations with the Dominions and India which might result in some modification of the text?