793.003/1037: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 15—12:35 p.m.]
7090. Mr. Eden wrote me on December 14 with respect to the penultimate paragraph of the memorandum transmitted in my 6608, November 24, 2 p.m., mentioning that the Chinese Government had [Page 403] asked for the inclusion in article 5 of the Sino-British treaty an additional clause terminating the convention for the extension of Hong Kong territory signed at Peiping in 1898. Mr. Eden now states that the British Government is not prepared to consider this matter in connection with the present treaty, since not only has the area leased by the convention nothing to do with extraterritoriality, but being, as stated in the agreement, an enlargement of British territory, is in an entirely different category from the concessions and settlements in China in which the British are relinquishing their special rights. The British Ambassador at Chungking has therefore been instructed to inform the Chinese Government that the British Government regards the leased territory as outside the scope of the present treaty.