811.42793/1173
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Chief of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs (Atcheson)
Dr. Kan Lee23 called at his request this morning. He stated that Dr. Soong had given him the task of examining into the question of the continuation of the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture—that question having arisen because of the treaty on extraterritoriality signed between the United States and China on January 11, 1943.
Dr. Kan mentioned that he understood that some aspects of this question had been raised with us before by Dr. Alfred Sze, former Chinese Minister and a member of the Board of the China Foundation, and by Mr. Liu Chieh, Minister Counselor of the Chinese Embassy. Dr. Kan said that he understood that there were elements in the Government at Chungking which wished to alter the constitution of the Board although in what way he did not know; he wished to discuss the matter informally; and he requested an informal opinion from me as to what obligation might continue to rest on the Chinese Government to hand over to the China Foundation payments of Boxer Indemnity funds which were in suspense, and also an opinion in regard to possible changes in the Board’s constitution.
In reply I referred to conversations on this subject held with Mr. Liu Chieh on December 9, 1942 and with Dr. Sze on February 18 [8], 1943, went over the ground covered in those conversations and repeated the opinion which we had expressed on those occasions to the effect that Article II of the new treaty on extraterritoriality made it clear that all of this Government’s rights under the Boxer Protocol and under supplementary agreements thereto would cease upon the coming into effect of the treaty; that although this Government’s rights in regard to Boxer Indemnity funds would be terminated by the treaty and this Government would therefore be eliminated as an agency in any transaction involving payment of such funds to the China Foundation by the Chinese Government, it seemed to us that there rested upon the Chinese Government some legal as well as moral obligation to pay to the Foundation the remitted sums due but not [Page 709] paid up to the time of the coming into effect of the treaty; that termination of extraterritoriality under the new treaty would not itself affect the relationship between the Chinese Government and the Foundation; that such relationship would be a matter for determination by those two organizations, with due regard for the considerations mentioned above; but that the Chinese Government would, in the light of the considerations upon which the Boxer Indemnity payments had been remitted pursuant to the provisions of Executive Order No. 4268, July 16, 1925, seem to have legal as well as moral obligations to continue to hand over to the Foundation sums due but not paid up to the time of the coming into effect of the treaty.
I made it clear to Dr. Kan that this opinion had been expressed previously as now not upon our own initiative but in response to request for such an opinion and mentioned that in addition to such request from Dr. Sze and Mr. Liu Chieh, the Chinese Minister of Economics in Chungking, Dr. Wong Wen-hao, had made a similar request of our Embassy there and the Embassy had been instructed to convey to Dr. Wong the opinion in question. I showed to Dr. Kan a copy of the Executive Order mentioned previously, and at his request, told him that I would be glad to send a copy to him.
As regards the question of changes in the constitution of the Board, I said that I was not familiar with the provisions of the constitution and that if he could not find a copy of the constitution in his Embassy, I would endeavor to obtain the text. After some general discussion of this country’s longstanding cultural interest in and ties with China and an exchange of the usual amenities during which Dr. Kan expressed his thanks, he departed.
(A copy of the Executive Order No. 4268, July 16, 1925,24 together with a copy of the text of the constitution of the Board25 as taken from the China Year Book of 1931–1932 is attached; copies of both documents have been sent to Dr. Kan.)
- Commercial Counselor of the Chinese Embassy.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. i, p. 935.↩
- Not reprinted.↩