CO129-529-5 China- extraterritoriality 23-11-1931 - 31-12-1931 — Page 153

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would not do, as they had made their two offers, first of Shanghai, and then of Greater Shanghai, and were waiting for the next move from us), and actually suggested some modification of our insistence on all four reserved areas as the price of a definite settlement. I accordingly replied to your telegram, pointing this out, and stating that if we failed to make any progress in getting the Chinese to agree to our four reserved areas (and it was evident we could not expect to do so), I should leave Nanking and return to the North.

Meeting with Minister for Foreign Affairs on May 18.

49. I arrived back in Nanking on the 18th May, and on the same afternoon was in session with the Minister for Foreign Affairs for over three hours, Mr. Teichman and Mr. Hsü-Mo, as usual, assisting. At first we made good progress in disposing of ground already covered. Article 14, concerning the vexed subject of personal status, was at length agreed to, with the exception of two words, which were left outstanding, but which were subsequently accepted on the Chinese side. Article 15, confirming existing rights of residence and trade, &c., was accepted, on the understanding, on our side, that I should at the time of the signature of the treaty address the Minister for Foreign Affairs a note reserving on behalf of His Majesty's Government the right to raise the question of the opening of the interior at such later date as they might deem appropriate. Articles 19 and 20, regarding the abrogation of conflicting clauses of existing treaties and the authoritative French text were agreed to. Three additional paragraphs covering minor points in the agreed minute were accepted. The constitutional and drafting amendments which His Majesty's Government desired to see introduced into the texts were disposed of, and a new draft note from the Minister for Foreign Affairs which I had prepared, covering the assurances on minor points desired by the Shanghai Joint Committee, was discussed and eventually accepted by Dr. Wang. Subsequently the Chinese negotiators, complaining that there was no end to the assurances for which we asked, sought to dispense with this note, or, alternatively, to incorporate its contents in the "agreed minute"; but I was able successfully to insist that the note must stand.

Meeting of May 18: Preamble.

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50. There were now left outstanding only the preamble, article 16 (Reserved Areas), article 21 (Duration), and article 22 (Ratification). We accordingly turned to these new texts, and I submitted, to begin with, a draft preamble as telegraphed out to me from the Foreign Office. The Minister for Foreign Affairs took exception to the phraseology, more especially to the references to "the extra-territorial system and the modification (or "abolition") "of extra-territorial jurisdiction," which seemed to me also rather clumsy and awkward; particularly in view of the fact that, under the treaty, with its reserved areas, we were neither exactly "modifying nor abolishing extra-territorial jurisdiction. Eventually, after the Minister for Foreign Affairs had tried his hand at redrafting our formula "on a basis of equality and mutuality," we found common ground on a more simple version referring merely to the desire of both parties "to arrange for the removal of the restrictions on China's jurisdictional sovereignty"; which I undertook to recommend to you. Subsequently I received from you the text of the preamble of the Dutch treaty, which had just been communicated to the Foreign Office; this merely referred to the readjustment of "matters relating to jurisdiction," and was eventually accepted as being the most suitable.

Meeting of May 18: Duration.

51.

I next presented an article providing for a ten years' duration of the treaty, along the lines of our original draft of September 1930. This I did as a tactical move, expecting that it would be rejected as unacceptable, since I was well aware that the Chinese Government could not be induced to agree to any wording which could be interpreted as binding them, on the lines of the vague duration clauses of the old "Unequal Treaties," to the continuance for an indefinite period of special rights and immunities for foreigners in any shape or form; indeed, even in their recent reciprocal commercial treaties with minor

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