Directory_and_Chronicle_1941 — Page 76

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EXTRATERRITORIALITY

of China to come to an agreement by which the limitation on China's jurisdic- tional sovereignty will be removed and which will enable the Chinese Govern- ment to assume jurisdiction over all nationals within its domain.

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Your Excellency expressed the conviction that the reciprocal advantages resulting from the tariff convention recently concluded between our two countries would be considerably enhanced if the relations between our two countries were regulated on the basis of equality in matters of jurisdiction, and that by the abolition of the system of consular jurisdiction an obstacle would be removed for the full co-operation between the Chinese people and foreign nationals especially in commercial matters; the desire of the Chinese Government for promotig the material interests of all who choose to associate themselves with the Chinese people would in that case find its early realization.

Her Majesty's Government has given this request its most careful consi- deration, and now instructs me to inform Your Excellency that just as it was happy to join the other powers in bringing about the Resolution adopted on December 10th 1921 by the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armaments, which placed on record its sympathetic disposition towards China's aspiration, so it will be pleased to co-operte with these Powers and with China for the realization and fulfilment of China's desire with regard to the question of jurisdiction.

It may here be recalled that with this end in view Her Majest's Govern- ment wholeheartedly participated in the work of the International Commission which was instituted as a result of the above-mentioned Resolution and which drew up a number of valuable recommendations for the benefit of the Chinese Government.

It cannot be gainsaid that there exists a close relationship between the internal situation of China, the guarantees which the laws offer to foreign rights and interests and their administration in the whole of China on the one hand, and the measure of progress which it will be possible to make on the road to abolition of the special arrangements now in force with regard to foreigners on the other. The possibility for Netherlands subjects to enjoy liberty of trade, of residence and of the exercise of civil rights including that of owing property throughout the whole of China is in the same way closely connected with the degree of security existing in the interior of the country and with the question of what safeguards the Chinese judicial institutions offer with a view to their independence and their immunity from interference by military and political authorities.

I am desired by Her Majesty's Government to assure with Excellency of its unalterable sympathy towards China with regard to this question and of its readiness when the introduction and the effective acceptance by the country of modern institutions guaranteeing the administration of just laws by an independent and unassailable judiciary will have rendered useful re- forms possible in the matter of jurisdiction over Netherlands nationals, to act in unison with the Governments of the Powers who were represented at the Conference of Washington with the object object of examining the possibility of meeting the aspiration to which the Chinese Delegation at the said Con- ference gave expression and which is reiterated in Your Excellency's Note under reply.

I avail myself, etc.,

(Signed) W. Y. OUDENIJK.

To His Excellency

Doctor Chengting T. Wang,

Minister of Foreign Affairs,

of the National Government of the Chinese Republic, Nanking.