31
2.
undecypherable) of 4 areas would prejudice Chinese
case for resisting Japan's and France's claims to other
reserved areas elsewhere. I countered this as false
logic.
Shanghai, Tientsin, Hankow and Canton were all
recognised centres of international trade with no
political facets. Give us them and thereby strengthen
Chinese case against same political reserved areas.
4. At one moment he touched on question of
(? concessions) and argued that to include Tientsin and
Shameen would be to perpetuate concession status
indefinitely.
all the case:
I proved to him that this was not at
retention of jurisdiction did not
necessarily entail retention of concessions regarding
which our offer of January 1927 stood on record: but
I admitted that conversely we could not abandon juris-
diction in those areas and retain concessions. As this
was becoming delicate ground I switched discussion back
to restatement of our minimum, i.e. 4 areas and 10 years
and on leaving begged him to reflect most seriously be-
fore deliberately turning down this golden opportunity
of settling with us. He replied that no one would
regret failure more than he but that he would not dare
to give way over reserved areas which neither his
government nor May conference would ever countenance. His parting words were, "I hope our next meeting will be more satisfactory.
5. On the whole his attitude was only what I expected. And presumably the right course now is to await developments and show no sign of weakening. while I may be able to use the interval to lobby in influential quarters.
Addressed to Foreign Office No.107, April 19th, repeated to Peking. Copy to Shanghai.
Mean-