793.003/1041: Telegram
The Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 18—6:50 p.m.]
7195. Under date of December 17, Mr. Eden has sent me the following comments on the navigation questions dealt with in the Department’s telegram 6327, December 14, 9 p.m.:
“The Chinese Government have offered to United States [United Kingdom] the same wording concerning navigation questions for inclusion in the exchange of notes as that given in the message from the Department of State of the 14th December. They have also agreed to the insertion of a sentence providing for the relinquishment by China of her rights of navigation on the Irrawaddy.
We have decided to accept this wording subject to the insertion of a phrase at two points in the second paragraph designed to ensure that we shall not be obliged under the most-favored-nation provision to grant China the right to engage in the coastal trade and inland navigation of British territories unless the Chinese permit British ships to participate in the coastal trade or inland navigation of China. [Page 406] Having regard to adjustments of form, the appropriate passage in our exchange of notes will thus read as follows:
‘His Majesty the Bang and the President of the Republic of China mutually agree that merchant vessels of one high contracting party shall be permitted freely to come to ports, places and waters in the territories of the other high contracting party which are or may be opened to overseas merchant shipping and that treatment accorded to such vessels in such ports, places and waters shall be no less favorable than that accorded to national vessels and shall be as favorable as that accorded to vessels of any third country. The term “vessels” of a high contracting party means all vessels registered under the law of any of the territory of that high contracting party to which the treaty signed this day applies.
His Majesty the King relinquishes the special rights which his vessels have been accorded with regard to coasting trade and inland navigation in the waters of the Republic of China. The President of the Republic of China relinquishes the special rights which have been accorded to Chinese vessels in respect of navigation on the river Irrawaddy under article 12 of the convention signed at London on the 1st March 1894. Should one high contracting party accord in any of his territories the right of coasting trade or inland navigation to vessels of any third country, such rights would similarly be accorded to vessels of the other high contracting party provided that the latter high contracting party permits vessels of the former high contracting party to engage in the coasting trade or inland navigation of his territories. Coasting trade and inland navigation are excepted from the requirement of national treatment and are to be regulated according to the laws of each high contracting party in relation thereto. It is agreed, however, that vessels of either high contracting party shall enjoy within the territories of the other high contracting party with respect to coasting trade and inland navigation treatment as favorable as that accorded to vessels of any third country subject to the above mentioned proviso.’
The Foreign Office note that the Department of State intend to accept the wording now proposed by the Chinese Government and that there is no reference to the taking over of any American properties that may have been engaged for the purposes of coastal trade and inland navigation and the payment of adequate compensation therefor. The Foreign Office are also inclined not to raise this latter point now but to assume that the reservation of coastal trade and inland navigation to ships flying the Chinese flag does not necessarily preclude the use of foreign-owned wharves, et cetera, for the purposes of these trades.
In connection with the understanding on coastal trade and inland navigation, His Majesty’s Ambassador will inform the Chinese Government of the long established practice under which trade between India, on the one hand, and Burma or Ceylon, on the other, is regarded as coastal trade.”