611.9331/115: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
790. 1. In the course of a personal letter dated October 17th Soong writes:
“Our commercial treaty is deservedly popular and could be ratified today if desired, as with us the question is simple enough. My Government is holding back only because it realizes that under your constitution ratification hinges on favorable Senate action. As soon as we receive word that America will ratify the treaty, we will announce our ratification, which is only a mere matter of form with us.
However, if for any reason you believe that immediate ratification on the part of our Government would assist the matter, I shall be very glad to learn of it, and see what can be done. In any case I feel quite sure that nothing could prevent ratification, as the Government and people are overwhelmingly in favor of it; the little opposition here and there is an outcome of domestic politics, which need not be taken seriously.”
2. In view of the possibility that the factional opposition to the provision for most-favored-nation treatment, as manifested in connection with the recent treaty with Germany18 and the negotiations with Czechoslovakia,19 might develop into something serious, it would seem to me advisable to have the treaty ratified on the part of the Nationalist Government as early as possible.
3. If the Department concurs, I should propose to Soong that there is every reason to anticipate early ratification on our part and that the matter might be somewhat expedited if China were previously to have ratified.
- Telegram in two sections.↩
- For text of treaty of Dec. 8, 1923, with Germany, see Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. ii, p. 29.↩
- ibid., 1927, vol. ii, pp. 539 ff.↩