706.6193/7: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Minister in China (Schurman)
183. Your 270, August 1, 4 p.m. While the Department approves the note in principle, with the amendment suggested below, and you may so inform your colleagues, it would, in view of the fact that this Government has not recognized the Soviet regime, prefer that it should be signed by some other representative of the Protocol Powers. Would it not therefore be practicable for the note, mutatis mutandis, to be signed after your departure from Peking by some other diplomatic representative of the Protocol Powers, preferably the ranking diplomatic representative of a power which has recognized the Soviet regime, and to be then despatched to Karakhan. The Department is not informed of the exact date of your departure from Peking but it assumes that you will be leaving within a day or two in order that you may spend a few days in Shanghai before sailing.
You will readily appreciate that your action in signing a formal note of this character addressed to the duly accredited Soviet Russian representative, even though you do so in your capacity as dean of the Protocol Powers, and not as the American Minister, might be construed as an act of recognition and that those who would benefit from such an erroneous impression would make no effort to discourage it. It is essential to avoid any such contingency. As a further [Page 452] precaution, the Department suggests that the following paragraph be added to the note and trusts that the representatives of the Protocol Powers will acquiesce:
“It is, of course, understood that nothing in this note shall be construed as constituting recognition of the regime known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by any Protocol Power which has not recognized that regime.”