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the State Department) any reference in the treaty to the continuance of the hated "consular jurisdiction" (which is, incidentally, the common Chinese term for extra-territoriality), any necessary provision for the continued functioning of the British courts in the reserved areas being best included in or in connexion with the relevant article (No. 16); and, finally, since we should presumably be proceeding, after the conclusion of the extra-territoriality negotiations, with the negotiation of a commercial treaty on a more reciprocal basis, it seemed better to reserve the question of consuls until it could be adequately dealt with in such an agreement. These views were subsequently endorsed by the Foreign Office, and my American colleague was so informed. I was subsequently informed, however, that the American Government intended to pursue their proposal to incorporate in the treaty something on the lines of a consular convention, in regard to which I could only wish them success.
Further Instructions re Reserved Areas and Conversation with Minister for
Foreign Affairs, May 21.
56. On the 21st May I received further instructions making it plain that the previous instructions which I had found somewhat ambiguous (see paragraph 48 above) were intended to give me the necessary degree of latitude in seeking to reach an agreement on the basis of the exclusion of Shanghai and Tientsin alone. This telegram went on to point out the dangers of adjourning the negotiations and the desirability of arriving at a settlement without further delay if it were possible to do so. These instructions arrived opportunely, since I had already arranged to take the Minister for Foreign Affairs for a cruise on the river on the afternoon of the same day with a view to having a heart-to-heart talk with him on the subject of the negotiations. Once again experience demon- strated the advantages of private conversation over formal negotiations, and during the three hours we were on the river I was able to lead him on to a frank and friendly discussion of possible lines of compromise. He, for his part, explained with equal frankness the difficulties of his own position and the impossibility of his agreeing to the reservation of the four areas, which the Chinese public would regard as the perpetuation of the foreign concessions in those areas at the very moment when the recovery of these concessions was, as everyone knew, one of the main planks in the foreign policy of the Chinese Government. Finally, in the course of our lengthy conversation I took the opportunity of throwing out a broad hint that we might consider the rendition of the British concession at Canton, and, as additional inducements, some form of assurance of a settlement of the Shanghai extra-settlement roads question and the payment by British subjects of Chinese taxation in the reserved areas.
Reserved Areas: Discussion of May 24: Minister for Foreign Affairs offers
Shanghai for Five Years and Tientsin for Three Years.
57. During the next day or two I worked out the necessary formulæ, and, on Sunday morning, the 24th May, I met Dr. Wang again at his residence for a further private discussion. I had, I said, during the interval crystallised the results of our conversation on the 21st May into a rough draft to facilitate discussion, and to make things easier had gone so far as to increase my offer (referring to the dropping of the Canton reserved area as well as the rendition of Shameen). But before putting in my draft I must make my position absolutely clear. My present offer was strictly conditional on all outstanding points in the draft treaty being disposed of to our satisfaction, including duration periods of ten years for the whole treaty and lesser periods of five years for articles 2 and 3 only, an acceptable ratification clause, and so on; secondly, the terms of the offer I was now about to make were formulated on my personal responsibility and at the risk of incurring your displeasure; and, thirdly, the offer was made on the clear understanding that Shanghai and Tientsin would be treated alike as regards the reserved areas there. I then handed him a draft text providing for the exclusion of the municipal areas (comprising concessions and settlements and surrounding territory within Chinese municipal limits) at Shanghai, Tientsin and Hankow, where the jurisdiction of the British courts would remain in force, the payment of regular taxation by British subjects in the said areas, an under- taking to enter into negotiations within five years on the subject of "the arrange-