793.003/203: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Perkins) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 7—3:35 p.m.]
1104. (1) At yesterday’s meeting of the interested Legation heads, the British Minister gave his colleagues the information I reported in my 1074, December 3, 7 p.m., paragraph 2, and also the substance [Page 640] of telegrams later received from London. Sir Miles Lampson has maintained, in his communications to the Foreign Office, that the Chinese threat to carry out unilaterally the abrogation of extraterritoriality directly cuts across the offer by the foreign governments to negotiate and that, until the Chinese attitude has been modified, it is, therefore, highly inadvisable to start negotiations. The position of the British Foreign Office, on the other hand, is that the opening of negotiations before January 1 is the best safeguard against Chinese unilateral action. The Foreign Office states also that the brief intervening period does not permit the interested Governments to give the question further mutual study and Lampson should warn his colleagues that the Chinese in calling for separate negotiations are quite within their rights because the treaties are not multilateral. The Foreign Office points out that, time being of the essence in the matter, Lampson should be ready immediately to proceed to Nanking. Again reaffirming the view that it is not advisable to yield to Chinese threats, Lampson, however, states in reply his readiness, if so directed by the Foreign Office, to proceed to Nanking. He expects final instructions at any moment.
(2) The French Minister said that the Chinese Minister in Paris, in a note dated November 26, communicated his Government’s intention to abrogate the extraterritorial rights of France on January 1 and the request for negotiations to commence at once. The French Government purposes replying that the Chinese right to take such action cannot be recognized and only by juridical means can the question be determined. The death of Minister Saburi having interfered naturally for the time being with the progress of treaty revision, the Japanese Chargé had nothing to communicate on the subject.
(3) I informed my colleagues of the substance of the Department’s 398, November 29, 6 p.m.