893.74/288: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Minister in China ( Schurman )
72. Your telegrams 100, April 10, 1 p.m., 117 April 22, 12 noon.
You may advise Foreign Office and other interested authorities in your discretion that there are no negotiations between this Government and that of Japan in progress with regard to the Federal [Page 792] wireless contract. I have taken up the matter with the Japanese Ambassador only in the sense of remonstrating against interference with the carrying out of a valid American contract with regard to which this Government has consistently maintained that Japanese interests have no locus standi. The Chinese Government should understand that while I have endeavored to facilitate its fulfilment of its contractual obligations to the Federal Company by inducing the Japanese Government to discontinue its opposition, this Government nevertheless regards the company’s contract as having established rights to which it is the positive obligation of the Chinese Government to give effect, regardless of whether or not the Japanese opposition is withdrawn.
You will further advise the Minister for Foreign Affairs that this Government is keenly disappointed by the failure of the Chinese Government to permit the carrying out of this contract despite its recent reaffirmation by the Cabinet as reported in your despatch No. 1409.7 This delay is not only hurtful to the American interests concerned, as it jeopardizes the prospects of an enterprise for which the Department understands a capital of thirteen million dollars is immobilized, but it threatens to undermine the position which this Government, in full accord with the Chinese Government, has taken in making this contract an issue involving the principle of China’s freedom from international control in matters of electrical communications, the policy of direct communication between the United States and China, and the principle of the open door.
Dr. Koo will recall that these issues were the subject of correspondence in May, 1921, in which this Government took occasion to state its position in terms which were later adopted as the basis of Article III of the Conference Treaty concerning Principles and Policies in China.8 He will also recall that during the Conference the Chinese Government sought and received the assistance of the American Delegation in opposition to proposals for a unification of Chinese wireless, and in that connection gave renewed assurances of its desire to proceed with the Federal contract and uphold the policy of equality of opportunity as against the monopolistic and discriminatory claims set up by other foreign interests. (See particularly your telegrams No. 5, January 6, 1 p.m., and No. 44, February 10, 4 p.m., and Department’s No. 4, January 10, 8 p.m.9)
In view of the strong support which for more than two years this Government has given to the rights conferred by China upon the Federal Company in the faith that such support was understood [Page 793] by the Chinese Government as upholding its political and economic interests no less than the interests of the American company, I find it difficult to comprehend the withdrawal of the Chinese Government’s cooperation and its apparent willingness to permit continued delays which threaten the success of a project whose validity has just been confirmed anew and whose advantage to both the United States and China is beyond question. I feel warranted in hoping that the Chinese Government may now see its way to do its part in cooperating for the realization of plans in which the interests of both countries are identified.
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- Not printed; see telegram no. 70, Feb. 28, from the Minister in China, p. 785.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 276.↩
- Telegrams are of 1922; ibid., pp. 844, 846, and 845, respectively.↩