793.003/452: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Jenkins)
For Johnson and repeat to Legation as No. 392:
Legation’s 977, November 11, noon.
The Department is releasing to the press today the following item:
“On September 18, 1930, the Department announced that it would be prepared in October to resume the conversations begun some time ago in regard to American extraterritorial jurisdiction in China. Proposals of the American Government have recently been communicated to the Chinese Minister, Dr. C. C. Wu, in Washington, and to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the National Government of the Republic of China, Dr. C. T. Wang, in Nanking.
The proposals are in keeping with the statements of the Department issued under dates September 4, 1929, and November 11, 1929, that the American Government was prepared to enter into negotiations which would have as their object 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 enforcement of laws based on modern concepts of jurisprudence.
Broadly speaking, the proposals are constituted in part on the principle of transfer of jurisdiction in reference to specified kinds of cases and in part on the principle of such transfer in all but a specified area or areas.
The proposals are similar to, but not identical with proposals made to the Chinese Government by the British Government on September 11, 1930.”