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.]
137
FROM CHINA.
Decypher.
Sir M. Lampson. (Peking)
April 6th. 1931.
D.
12.21.p.m. April 6th. 1931.
R.
9.00.a.m. April 6th. 1931.
No. 107.
95
IMPORTANT.
Your telegram No. 43.
(90)
I will do my best to restore original phrase but Chinese strongly object to it as being too wide. May I preface sentence with words "subject to reciprocity of treatment for Chinese citizens in Great Britain"?
91) 2. 921 3.
Your telegram No. 44. I anticipate no difficulty. Your telegram No. 45. I have already pressed very hard to get substance of this included in declaration
(20) attached to Article 1 (see my telegram No. 77) but Chinese profess to regard it as too derogatory and offensive; I will try again. Is it to be made a sine qua non?
931
I was
4. Your telegram No. 48, second paragraph. inclined to agree with United States Minister as regards
47 deletion of third sentence in my telegram No. 48 on the ground that it might put ideas into heads of Chinese and be interpreted by them as affording possible legal justifi- cation for occupation of British premises. As it is Chinese government have never sought to justify case of occupation of mission premises by troops with which we have to deal frequently. United States Minister urged his views strong- ly and I felt that on balance he was right. In any case Chinese will not agree to bind themselves to pay compensa- tion in all such cases arguing that it is contrary to in- ternational usage to pay compensation in special circum- stances such as earthquake, flood etc., when private
property/