[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.]
Co CHINA.
Code telegram to sir. Lampson, (Nanking),
Foreign Office, 2nd April, 1931, 6.25 p.m.
No.47. (R).
Following is text referred to in my immediately preceding telegram.
1
106
120
His Majesty's Goverment in the United Kingdom cre happy to observe from the reports which have been received from His Majesty's Minister in China that considerable pro... gress has been achieved in the discussions which have been taking place between Sir L. Lampson and the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs on the subject of extraterritoriality.
His Majesty's minister has informed the inister for Foreign Affairs that if the safeguards considered essential by His Majesty's Government are accepted by the Chinese Government, they will almost certainly be prepared to surrend er not only the right of evocation and the right of legal counsellors to act as co-judges, but also jurisdiction in criminal matters over British subjects. The remaining safeguard which the Minister for Foreign Affairs appears un- willing to accept is the exclusion of Shanghai, Tientsin, Canton and Hankow from the new arrangement. These areas present a special problem of their own, both on account of the size and complexity of the interests which have grown up in them, and of the fact that other Powers besides the British Empire are intimately concerned.
His Majesty's Government trust that the Chinese Govern- ment will realise the reasonable nature of the attitude which they have adopted and the necessity of the safeguards which they consider essential in this most important and difficult problem. They earnestly hope that the Chinese Government will weigh most carefully the considerations urged by Sir M. Lampson. They attach great importance to an early termi- nation of the negotiations and the conclusion of a satisfact- ory agreement. They would deplore it if the Chinese Govern- ment were to take up an attitude which would prevent such a satisfactory cutcome.
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