763.72119/3162: Telegram
The Minister in China ( Reinsch ) to the Acting Secretary of State 21
[Received December 24—2:47 p.m.]
The Allied representatives have recommended to their Governments that the following arrangements for the permanent abolition [Page 519] of German-Austro-Hungarian privileges in China should be adopted by the Peace Conference.
- First Internationalization of German and Austrian concessions in Hankow, Tientsin with Chinese participation in their municipal government and liquidations of enemy property there.
- Second. The definitive abrogation of the protocol of 1901 with respect to Germany-Austria-Hungary with all the consequences involved particularly regarding landed commitments in the Legation quarter and in case of a new distribution of holdings a preference to those Entente powers which at present have no land in diplomatic quarter.
- Third. Application to German and Austro-Hungarian merchandise of a general tariff with augmented rates.
Extension to China of all general measures which may be taken to prohibit the access of Austro-Hungarian German subjects and vessels to the territory and ports of the Allied powers. The representatives also recommend that their governments seek means for obtaining the exclusion of Austria’s German interests from all participation financial or industrial in foreign groups operating in China.
The above is reported for your consideration with a view to action at the conference.
- Substance of this telegram repeated to the Commission to Negotiate Peace as Department’s telegram No. 117, Jan. 6, 1919, 8 p.m.↩