Office of the Historian

893.00/13410: Telegram

The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State

Nanking, March 17, 1936—3 p.m.
[Received March 17—2 p.m.]

56. Following is translation of a note from the Minister of Foreign Affairs dated March 14:

“Some of the foreign diplomatic missions in Nanking have recently inquired of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the duties and rights of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Hopei-Chahar Political Affairs Commission which on March 7, 1936 issued a circular to the various foreign diplomatic missions in China to the effect that it attends to all diplomatic matters for Hopei, Chahar, Peiping and Tientsin.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes this occasion to state that the provisional general principles governing the organization of the Hopei-Chahar Political Commission provide, when necessary, the Commission may establish different special committees, but that their duties shall be confined to the study and discussion of various problems and such committees shall have no authority to transact any business with foreign authorities.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has the honor to indite this third-person note for the Embassy’s information.”

Peck