893.102S/2476: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Johnson)
98. Your 151, April 24, 11 a.m., and Shanghai’s 473, April 24, 6 p.m. The Department considers that acquiescence by the Chinese Government in establishment of the provisional council at Shanghai is highly desirable for a number of reasons, including the advisability of averting possibility of there arising difficult legal questions.
In your telegram of April 11, 11 a.m., to Shanghai there is quoted a statement of the Chinese Government to the effect that it will acquiesce in the establishment of the provisional council only on condition that (1) every one of the four Chinese members of the new council shall be a member of the present council and that (2) the proposed arrangement shall be operative for not more than 2 years. The second condition apparently offers no difficulty.
The Department concurs in your view that this Government should not ask the Chinese Government to “accept puppet councilors” but, in as much as the resolution approved on April 17 by the foreign ratepayers at Shanghai does not contain the names of the Chinese councilors, the Department feels that this Government may, with entire propriety, urge upon the Chinese Government the desirability of acceptance by it of the provisional arrangement approved by the foreign ratepayers at Shanghai on April 17.
The Department is making a statement along the above lines to the Chinese Ambassador here with the request that he communicate it to his Government. The text of that statement10 is being transmitted to you in a separate telegram11 and the Department desires that, if you have not already done so, you make an approach to the Chinese Government in accordance with paragraph 2 of the Department’s no. 86, April 23, 5 p.m. You are also authorized to make available to the Chinese Government the text of the statement contained in the separate telegram.
Sent to Chungking. Repeated to Peiping and Shanghai.