711.933/163: Telegram
The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State
958. 1. Following note dated November 1st has been sent to Minister for Foreign Affairs:9
“On August 10th last I had the honor to acquaint Your Excellency with the views of my Government on the question of abolition of extraterritoriality raised by Your Excellency in your note of April 27th.
I now have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note of September 5th, in which it is requested that immediate discussions be opened with the Chinese Government for making the necessary arrangements whereby extraterritoriality in China will be abolished to the mutual satisfaction of both Governments.
Your Excellency will remember that in my above-mentioned note of August 10th I transmitted at considerable length the opinion which my Government had formed on this subject after having given it its most serious and careful consideration.
It is therefore unnecessary to enter here again into all the details connected with this complicated matter, although it seems to my Government not superfluous to draw the attention of the Chinese Government to the fact that certain events of the past few months cannot but strengthen the opinion that the legal and physical safeguarding of property and of life in China still leaves very much to be desired.
However, assuming that the Chinese Government has not failed to take into consideration the main points set forth in my note of August 10th, and desiring as far as possible to meet the wishes of the Chinese Government, my Government is prepared to enter into negotiations when convenient to the Chinese Government which shall have as the [their] object, as indicated in the concluding paragraph of my note of August 10th, ‘the devising of a method for the gradual relinquishment of extraterritorial rights, either as to designated territorial areas, or as to particular kinds of jurisdiction, or as to both, provided that such gradual relinquishment proceeds at the same time as steps are taken and improvements are achieved by the Chinese Government in the enactment and effective enforcing of laws based on modern concepts of jurisprudence.’
I avail myself, et cetera.”
2. In view of the present uncertainty of mails, I also telegraphically requested Adams10 November 1st to inform Wang that note had been despatched quoting the concluding paragraph.