The Foreign Office has authorised the publication of the following
statement:
In view of the excellent relations now existing between the
Government at Canton and the American Consular authorities, the
Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs believes that no
misunderstanding will be created by the publication of the following
letter, dated, June 30. from Mr. Douglas Jenkins, American Consul
General, to Mr. Chen Yu-jen (Eugene Chen), Acting Minister for
Foreign Affairs, with the reply of the latter dated July 2:
Sir: Adverting to this Consulate General’s dispatch of June
16 in acknowledgment of your note of June 4, 1926,58 concerning
the abolition of the office of Commissioner of Foreign
Affairs and the intention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
to deal with all international cases in the future, I have
the honor to explain that while this Consulate General is
pleased to correspond directly with the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, it is of course understood that recognition is not
implied.
I have the honor to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed) Douglas Jenkins,
American Consul
General
Foreign Minister’s
Reply
republic of china
nationalist
government
ministry of foreign
affairs
Sir: I have the honour to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated June 30, in
which you explain—what has already been quite clear and
obvious to me—that recognition is not implied in your
despatch of June 16 acknowledging my note of June 4, which
notified you of the abolition of the Office of Commissioner
for Foreign Affairs
[Page 670]
and the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to
deal with all international cases in the future.
Though in ordinary circumstances your letter might call for
no specific reply, I believe the best interests of the
American people and of the Chinese people as represented by
my Government would be served if I make the categorical
statement that, while my Government (which has stabilized an
independent political regime founded here nearly a decade
ago and has unified a group of territories larger in area
than France and Italy combined, with a population of
60,000,000 people) demands that it be treated with respect,
it neither desires nor expects from America and other
Foreign Powers the sort of recognition which even
considerations of political realism and international
dignity have not prevented them from granting to the phantom
governments successively set up in Peking by Mandarin
squeezers, military plunderers and ex-bandit chiefs. The
Foreign Powers, apparently, have not yet realised that
Peking has long ceased to represent the Chinese nation and
that it is today but an organ of exploitation and plunder in
the hands of the Mandarinate and the Northern militarists.
As long as this fundamental fact remains ungrasped by the
Foreign Powers, the state of China must necessarily worsen
and some of the ominous possibilities of the situation may
well become realities.
With a clear apprehension of what it all means, my Government
is striving to forward the work of establishing the new
equilibrium between the Chinese system (i.e. the Chinese
people in their organization as a social and
politico-economic aggregate) and the altered environment
brought about largely by foreign intercourse and pressure.
And though unrecognized but withal the only ruling group in
China at the moment that really governs, my Government is
not without hope of planting the foundation of a great new
structure of relations between China and America and other
friendly Powers which, while assuring the latter a friendly
and profitable market for their goods and services, will
enable the Chinese people to live in freedom and to work out
the modernisation of their country in terms of the best both
in their historic experience and individual culture and in
the doctrinal systems and material progress of the West.
I have etc.,
