CO129-588-23 China- British extra-territorial rights- negotiations with China 28-3-1942 - 27-11-1942 — Page 51

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"reign commerce" in Paragraph Two of our suggested article. following reference to the ports, places, and waters which are to be opened to overseas merchant shipping. (We do not interpret the phrase "and carry on trade" in Article 5 of our draft as granting or implying rights of inland navigation, et cetera.)

(3) The question of the clause in regard to commerce in Article 5. It will be recalled that we concurred in the suggested inclusion of this clause at the earnest request of the British Government although we felt that it might logically be regarded as one of the questions to be considered in the later comprehensive treaty. As indicated in One (4) we for our part would not object to deleting from Article 5′ the words "and to the carrying on of commerce" but would be pleased to receive the further views of the British Government in the matter.

4. Our draft treaty was presented to the Chinese Government on October 24th. We are for obvious reasons desirous of proceeding expeditiously toward agreement with the Chinese on the final draft. It would be gratifying to us if the treaty could be signed within the next three or four weeks.