893.05/206: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (Perkins)
418. Your 1144, December 13, 7 p.m. The Department concurs in your view that it would be unwise in the present situation to assent to a plan that would result in the creation within the International Settlement of a Chinese court exercising jurisdiction over all persons in the Settlement. The Department feels that the exercise under existing circumstances of such jurisdiction by a Chinese tribunal would negative the present efforts to safeguard the personal rights and the vast economic interests centered in the International Settlement against involvement in the complications of Chinese national and local politics and wars. In the event that the question of establishing a court with such jurisdiction should become a part of the question of extending the sphere of jurisdiction of Chinese courts in general, the whole question may, of course, have to be considered further, in a different perspective.