CO129-588-24 China- British extra-territorial rights- negotiations with China 23-11-1942 - 1-1-1943 — Page 172

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adequate compensation. .for. It is further understood

owever that should tì public of China later in any way extend the right of inland navigation or participation in coastal trade to vessels of any third nation, such rights would similarly be extended to vessels of the U. S. of America," The Chinese Government states that in view of the importance which the Chinese people attach to the questions of the coasting trade and inland naviga- tion it is snxious that these questions be dealt with in as clear cut a manner as is the question of visits by foreign warships.

2. As regarde (b) (1) above, we are inclined to adopt an attitude similar to that of the British Govern- ment as expressed in paragraph numbered two of Mr. den's letter of December 4 and assume that with the abolition of the treaty port system it is not the intention of the Chinese Government to confine foreign overseas shipping to particular ports. we accordingly propose not to make any further counter suggestion to the Chinese on this point.

3.

As regards the questions of inland navigation and coasting trade, which questions would seem to con- stitute the only remaining matter of diference between us and the Chinese, we are prepared to ac ept an approp- ristely revised wording of the formula suggested by the Chinese which would be consistent with the provisions of the raft full article on this subject previously proposed es an alternative to reserving the matter for the latter comprehensive treaty. we accordingly expect to suggest to the Chinese that the second senten e of the quoted portion of para raph (b) (2) above be revised to read as follows: "It is further understood however that if ves els of any third powers are permitted to participate in the coasting trade or inland navigation, vessels of the U.3. of America shall be allowed the same privileges.

4. #ith regard to Mr. aden's comments forwarded in his letter of December 7, it is desired that you inform Mr. Aden along the following lines:

Although we have naturally been desirous, for reason which Mr. Eden will himself of course appreciate and soMG of which we have referred to in previous telegrams, to expedite so far as possible the conclusion of the brief treaty on extraterritoriality, we have made no concession to the Chinese merely for the sake of saving time. On the contrary on several occasions action which we had been desirous of taking and which we were after full congon prepared to take has been postponed by us because of our desire to cooperate to the fullest extent possible with the British Government and in the earnest hope of reducing to a minimum the very few divergencies between bur views and those of the British Government - divergencies which have arisen as a very natural result of necessary differ ences between our respective practices and procedures.

As previously mentioned, our concept in proposing the brief treaty has been that it would effect abolition of extraterritorial and other special ri/hts and woul take care of such related matters as might require attention because of abolition of extraterritoriality. e had of course hoped to avoid extraneous matters and matters of particularization which might cause the negotia- tions to be unnecessarily prolonged and thereby tending to

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