[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government, and should be returned to the Foreign Office if not required for official use.]
From
CHINA.
De cypher.
Sir M. Lampson, (Nanking),
19th April, 1931.
D.
20th April, 1931.
R.
No.107. (Tour).
20th April, 1931.
30
138
After disposing of detail points covered in my
preceding telegrams I stayed behind and had a long talk
with Minister for Foreign Affairs alone.
2. We made little or no progress, he remaining
obdurate about excluded areas, I refusing to admit any
possibility of settlement on any different basis plus
a 10 years duration. Once more he offered Shanghai
alone for strictly limited period (amount not specified)
but I refused to follow him and referred him to your
conversation with Chinese Minister of April 2nd and
explicit wording of memorandum then handed to him of
which by request I am sending him text.
3. He employed usual covert threats about public
exasperation if by May 5th no settlement had been reach-
ed but I rode him off that, pointing out that now of all times China would stand to lose if she estranged Great Britain. Nor was any other Power likely to go so far
as we had shown our readiness to do
- e.g. surrender of criminal jurisdiction. He said, "Others will follow."
I retorted, "Quite so, all the more reason to give us
the one point on which we are bound and determined to
insist." Once more he argued that our group undecyther.
able)
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