793.003/197: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Perkins) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 3—1 p.m.]
1074. (1) The contents of the Department’s 398, November 29, 8 p.m., were reported today by me in a conversation with the British Minister.
(2) He informed me that the Chinese Minister in London on November 25 told Wellesley of the Foreign Office that the Chinese Government had decided on abrogation next January 1 of extraterritorial [Page 632] rights and intends establishing at Harbin, Tientsin, Hankow, Shanghai, and Canton, modern courts in which foreign advisers are to be employed without the right to interfere in decisions. Civil suits between foreigners may be tried in courts outside China, while the judgments so found may be enforced in Chinese courts on the condition that they are not repugnant to the laws and customs of China. … Apparently the Chinese Minister simply made an oral statement, without handing in a written communication.
(3) I should welcome instructions at as early a date as possible from the Department regarding the attitude which the Legation and consular officers in China are to take in the event that the Chinese Government’s purposes, as described above, should be carried out.