793.003/1023: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Gauss)
1193. Your 1427, December 3, 3 p.m.
1. Dr. Soong’s reference to his desire for a simple statement of “forthright relinquishment” of rights of inland navigation and coasting trade leads us to wonder whether our 1170, December 1, 2 p.m., was garbled or not clearly understood, as the first paragraph of our proposed article reads: “The Government of the United States of America relinquishes the special rights which vessels of the United States of America have been accorded with regard to the coasting trade and inland navigation in the waters of the Republic of China.” If the text you furnished Dr. Soong did not include this paragraph please communicate it to him immediately.
In any case please call upon the Chinese Foreign Minister as soon as feasible. You may in your discretion say to him, as we have said to Chinese representatives here, that in proposing the brief treaty our concept has been that it would effect abolition of extraterritorial and other special rights and take care of such related matters as would require attention because of abolition of extraterritoriality; that we had hoped to avoid extraneous matters and matters of particularization which might cause the negotiations to be prolonged and which might more appropriately be reserved for the later comprehensive treaty; that we have had no thought of seeking to reserve or obtain anything that is not usual and normal in modern international practice between friendly countries; that in a wholehearted spirit of friendship and a similarly wholehearted desire to wipe out existing anomalies in our relations with China, we have not made any effort to bargain; that we have of course gone on the assumption that the Chinese Government has had in mind objectives identical with ours and would wish, as strongly as we wish, to see our relations placed through the medium of the brief treaty upon the basis of what is normal, usual, equitable and just.
In the light of these considerations we feel that, now that purely commercial matters have been brought into the discussions, it is only reasonable and fair for us to expect that the Chinese Government would not desire that the treaty or exchange of notes have any appearance of providing for possible discrimination against American commercial interests as compared to the commercial interests of any other countries.
[Page 390]Dr. Soong will realize, we are sure, that we here also have problems of public and official opinion and that we would be subject to heavy criticism if in concluding agreements with other countries we do not take care to provide for equitable and legitimate protection of American commercial interests. For that reason we proposed as our second preference the full draft article on inland navigation and coasting trade along the lines of articles on those subjects in our modern treaties with other countries. We feel strongly that if our relinquishment of existing rights with respect to those matters is covered in the treaty or in the proposed exchange of notes, the question of our rights vis-à-vis rights of third countries should also be adequately covered. The formula Dr. Soong is considering does not, in the form which he mentioned, accomplish that purpose.
2. We have not yet received from the Chinese Embassy here its reply to our document of November 27.