793.008/1080: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Gauss)
113. Your 79, January 15, noon. The statement of October 26 by an officer of the Department to the Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy, mentioned in your telegram under reference, that “Article II made clear provision that any and all rights accorded to this Government under the Boxer Protocol and under agreements supplementary thereto shall cease” was the considered opinion of the Department, formulated after consultation with the Treasury Department. The British Government was informed of this opinion and expressed concurrence therewith. The phrase “any and all rights” was intended to cover also the bond given by the Chinese Government pursuant to the Protocol, and the Department will expect so to interpret Article II of the Chinese-American treaty of January 1115 when the treaty is ratified and comes into effect.
On December 9, 1942, the Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy inquired, on the basis of a telegraphic inquiry from Dr. Wong Wen-hao to Dr. Hu Shih, whether under the new treaty there would continue any obligation on the part of the Chinese Government to pay to the China Foundation the remitted sums, payment of which had been held in suspense. In response, an officer of the Department stated as an informal opinion that although the treaty would terminate any rights of this Government in regard to Boxer Indemnity funds and would therefore eliminate this Government as an agency in any transaction involving payment of such funds from the Chinese Government to the China Foundation, the treaty would not ipso facto affect the relations of the Chinese Government with the Board of Trustees of the China Foundation; and that it seemed that there rested upon the Chinese Government some legal as well as moral obligation to pay to the Board the sums due but not paid up to the time of the coming into effect of the treaty. (A memorandum of this conversation went forward to you by mail and should reach you shortly.)
Upon the coming into effect of the treaty, the relationship between the Chinese Government and the China Foundation will, in the Department’s opinion be a matter for determination by and between those entities—with due respect for the considerations advanced above. However, the Department feels that if representatives of the China Foundation for its part should request the Department’s opinion as to the obligations of the Chinese Government to the Foundation, the Department’s views as indicated above should be expressed informally to the inquirers. Similarly, if Chinese officials should raise the question, [Page 705] they also should be informally given our views and the inquirer be informed in addition that we would feel obligated to express the same opinion if inquiry should be made by representatives of the Foundation. You are accordingly authorized to speak for the Department along the lines indicated, if and when occasion therefor arises.
- Department of State Treaty Series No. 984, or 57 Stat. 767.↩