893.01 Provisional/18
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
It has been ascertained that the views of the French Government as regards the desirability of maintaining diplomatic representation in Peking substantially agree with those of the United States Government as expressed in the communication which the State Department were so good as to make to His Majesty’s Embassy on the 18th December.
The French Government consider that withdrawal of foreign diplomatic staffs from Peking would involve the renunciation of the rights of the Governments concerned under the Boxer Protocol, and might be regarded as a departure from the obligations which each signatory bears towards the others. The French Government hold that the maintenance of diplomatic staffs and Embassy guards would demonstrate support of the Government of China and the recognition still accorded to their rights, while withdrawal might have the appearance of acquiescence in the definite severance of the Northern Provinces, and thus suit the policy of the Japanese authorities as well as allowing their puppet Government to claim that they had achieved what the Kuomintang had tried for years without success to do. In the opinion of the French Government, moreover, the withdrawal of Embassy guards is closely connected with the future of foreign concessions in Tientsin which it might endanger. Thus while they do not exclude the possibility that the position of the great Powers in the Peking-Tientsin area may have to be revised, it has been learnt that the French Government think that if any step is taken in that direction it must be by agreement between the United States, France and Great Britain, and not by a rapid and spontaneous abandonment of existing rights.
Having regard to the opinion of the French and United States Governments, His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom have [Page 840] decided for the present not to withdraw their diplomatic staff or guards from North China. They share the views of the French Government in attaching importance to prior consultation before taking such a step, and in the light of the intimation which the United States Government have been so good as to give of their desire to maintain close touch with His Majesty’s Government in these matters, it is hoped that the United States Government will agree that all three Governments should concert together before any action is taken affecting their Embassies and Embassy guards in the event that this may be called for by subsequent developments in North China.