893.102S/1997: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 24—8:43 a.m.]
92. Department’s 25, February 21, 4 p.m. Acknowledgement has been sent in the form suggested. I have now received a letter from the British Ambassador71 suggesting that the British and American Embassies reply in identic notes and that the reply be along the following lines:
“The agreement is, as the Waichiao Pu72 states, a temporary one. It has been concluded by the Municipal Council who have had to face a de facto situation, which is full of dangerous potentialities. It is impossible for the Council to ignore the fact that territory adjacent to the International Settlement is governed and policed by the city government, and consequently for the preservation of law and order within the Settlement itself they have to cooperate in this particular respect with the authorities of the city government. If they had allowed matters to drift, a serious situation would have arisen which would have endangered the security of all the inhabitants of the Settlement.”
The Ambassador said he informed the Minister for Foreign Affairs73 about 2 weeks ago of the general nature of the modus vivendi. In reply to his request for my opinion regarding his draft, I have replied that to me it seems suitable but that I am referring it to the Department.
[Page 732]I suggest that Shanghai submit comments to the Department direct. I shall await the Department’s instruction.
Repeated to Shanghai, Peiping.