793.003/1048: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in the United Kingdom (Winant)
119. Your 5752, October 15, 1942, 1 a.m.; Department’s 5129, October 17, 5 p.m.; Department’s 5200, October 21, 10 p.m., your 6870, December 4, 8 p.m. and 7406, December 29, 6 p.m.,34 the question of obtaining Chinese assurances in regard to the treatment, after the [Page 417] abolition of extraterritoriality, of foreign nationals by Chinese courts and in regard to certain matters of personal status.
As indicated in paragraph 6 of our 5200, October 21, 10 p.m., we have been prepared to suggest to the Chinese Government informally that the Chinese Government might care, of its own accord and as a unilateral act on its part, and in whatever way it wishes, to take whatever steps it might consider appropriate to give assurances with regard to the courts and prisons in which foreign nationals in China might be tried or detained. We consider that it would be helpful for us to make such an approach and we shall expect, upon the signing of the treaty and supplemental exchange of notes, to hand to the Chinese Embassy a document marked “Oral” reading as follows:35
“This Government has been following in recent years the progressive steps which the Chinese Government has taken in matters relating to the administration of justice. This Government has noted the spirit which the Chinese Government has shown in adopting new civil and criminal codes, in establishing modern courts of justice, and in building improved prisons.
It is believed that it is the intention of the Chinese Government that this progressive program shall be extended throughout the territory of the Republic of China and that as areas of Chinese territory now under Japanese military control are restored to Chinese jurisdiction modern courts of justice will be reestablished and modern prisons will be restored or be built in such areas.
Questions affecting the administration of justice are regarded by the people of this country—as by the people of China—as of the very highest importance. It is to be expected that in connection with the relinquishment of extraterritorial jurisdiction by the American authorities over American nationals in China the people of this country will wish to understand as fully as possible just what the situation of American nationals in China is to be in respect to these questions. Undoubtedly, peoples in other countries concerned will be desirous of similar information.
It has been this Government’s understanding from indications given by the Chinese Government on occasion in the past that it is the policy of the Chinese Government that, except in the case of police offenses, foreign nationals who are parties to civil or criminal cases shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the modern Chinese courts of justice only; that in the case of police offenses foreign nationals shall be tried either by the modern Chinese courts of justice or by the police tribunals acting in accordance with duly promulgated laws, ordinances, and regulations; and that foreign nationals who may be detained or arrested or imprisoned by the Chinese authorities shall be held only in prisons designated by the Ministry of Justice for the detention of foreign nationals or in other suitable places.
If the Chinese Government should of its own initiative, by any measures that it might consider appropriate, set forth its policy with regard to these matters, such a step would be warmly welcomed by [Page 418] the Government and people of the United States and, it is believed, by the governments and peoples of other countries similarly concerned.
This subject is, of course, one for determination solely by the Chinese Government. It is the desire of this Government merely to bring the subject, because of its importance to the American people and to other peoples, to the attention of the Chinese Government.”
Please inform the British Foreign Office.
[For text of treaty for the relinquishment of extraterritorial rights in China and the regulation of related matters, signed at Washington, January 11, 1943, with an accompanying exchange of notes, see Department of State Treaty Series No. 984, or 57 Stat. 767. The Senate gave its consent to the ratification of the treaty without a dissenting vote on February 11, 1943. Ratifications were exchanged at Washington on May 20, 1943, and the treaty and notes came into effect on that day; this was so proclaimed by the President on May 24, 1943.
The British treaty was signed at Chungking, January 11, 1943; British and Foreign State Papers, volume CXLV, page 129.]