893.102S/2043: Telegram
The Consul at Shanghai (Butrick) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 8—1:05 p.m.]
400. Return of Settlement area north of Soochow Creek to Council’s control. Implementation of agreement of March 1st. Secretary and Commissioner General of the Council this morning informed British Consul General and me that the arrangements for the implementation of the agreement had been practically completed and that the Japanese to be named probationary division officer of “E” division had arrived from Japan. He stated that yesterday afternoon the Council had determined that it could not ignore the Japanese Consul [Page 736] General’s aide-mémoire when putting the agreement into effect and had therefore determined to inform him that it is now prepared to go ahead on the understanding that persons arrested by the Municipal Police functioning north of the creek, as in other parts of the Settlement, must be brought before the present district court for trial; and that the question of any change in the courts is one which the Japanese Consul General would have to take up with his interested colleagues.
If the implementation agreement is delayed, the Council feels that the onus will rest on the Japanese side. Actually the Secretary informs me that non-extraterritorial persons arrested in the Hongkew area by the limited number of Municipal Police now functioning there are brought before the district court for trial. However, there has recently been established by the Japanese naval landing party north of the creek a “rehabilitation court” before which non-extraterritorials and Chinese submit civil cases for “arbitration”. Appearance before this court has apparently been compulsory in most cases. There is the danger that an attempt may be made to continue or extend the jurisdiction of the “court” when the agreement is implemented.
On April 26, while I called on the Japanese Consul General on protection matters, I thought it opportune to bring to his attention briefly the substance of the Department’s 104 of March 11, having in mind that such course would give him an opportunity to revise his stand on any change in the jurisdiction of the court before he adopted a position from which he could not very well recede without considerable difficulty. In introducing this matter to his attention I commented that I should like to state in a purely personal capacity that I hoped he might find some way to avoid bringing up the matter of the court at this time. In answer to my question, he confirmed that the aide-mémoire is in no manner a part of the agreement.
Repeated to Chungking, Peiping, code text by airmail to Tokyo.