Evening star., 1932-02-24

situation is as follows:
My Dear Senator Borah:
; You have asked my opinion whether,
as has been sometimes recently sug-
gested, present conditions in China
have In any way indicated that the So
called nine power treaty has become
inapplicable or ineffective or rightly in
need of modification. and if so. what l
considered should be the policy OF this
Government.
This treaty as you of course know
forms the legal basis upon which now
rests the open door" policy toward
China. That policy, enunciated by
John Hay in 1899. brought to an END
the struggle among various powers tor
so-called spheres of interest in China
which was threatening the dismember-
ment of that empire.
Invoke Two Principles.
To accomplish this Mr.. Hay invoked
two principles-Q equality of CONNER
cial opportunity among all nations IN
dealing with China and (2) as neceS-
sary to that equality the preservation
OF China's territorial and admlnlstra-
tive integrity.
These principles were not new III
the foreign policy of America. They
had been the principles upon which II
rested in its dealings with other ma
ti0ns for many years. In the case oI
China they we're invoked to save
situation which not only threatened
the future Development and soFer-
eighty of that great Asiatic people but
also threatened to create dangerous
and constantly increasing rivalrles pc
tween the other nations Of the world
War had already taken place pe-
tween Japan and China. At the cioSe
of that war three other nations inter
vened to prevent Japan from ootalIlIllg
some of the results of that war CLAIMED
by her. Other nations sought ana hau
obtained spheres of interest.
Partly as a result of these actions
a serious uprising had broken out III
China which endangered the legations
CT all of the powers at Peklng. Whlle
the attack on those legations was III
progress, Mr.. Hay made an announce
ment in respect to this policy as lIIe
principle upon which the Po"eIo
should act in the settlement OF tiie
rebellion. He said; g
THE policy of the Government u
the United States is to seek solution
safety and peace to China, preserve
Chinese territorial and administrative
entity protect all rights guaranteed u
friendly powers by treaty and lnternd,
tional law, and safeguard for the Wor!G
the principle of equal and Impartial
trade with all parts OF the Chlhese
Empire
Other Powers Assent
,1,+
assent of the other powers to the poIlcy
thus announced.
In taking these steps Mr.. Hay acteo
with the cordial support of the British
government. In responding to Mr.
Hav's announcement. above set fortn,
Lord Salisbury, the British prime MN
lister. expressed himself most empnatl-
cally as concurring in the policy ol the
United States"
For 20 wears thereafter the open door
nolicy rested upon the informal COM
mitments thus made by the various
powers. But in the Winter OF 1921 to
1922 at a conference participated IN
by all of the principal powers which
had interests in the Pacific, the policy
was crystallized into the so-called nine
never treaty. which gave definition and
precision to the principles upon which
the policy rested. In the first article
of that treaty the contracting powers
other than China, agreed:
|. To respect the sovereignty. the IN
dependence and the territorial ana
administrative integrity of China.
2 To provide the fullest and most
unembarrassed opportunity to China to
develop and maintain for herself an
effective and stable government.
3. To use their influence for the pur,
pose Of effectually establishing ana
maintaining the principle OF equal op-
portunity for the commerce and lnous-
try of all nations throughout the
territory of China.
To refrain from taking advantage
of conditions in China in order to seek
special rights or privileges which Wouio
abridge the rights of subjects or cltl-
zens of friendly states, and from coun-
tenancinp action inimical to the Sc
curity of such states.
This treaty thus represents care
fully developed and matured lnternd-
tional policy intended, on the one haho'
to assure to all of the contracting par,
ties their rights and interests in ana
with regard to China. and on the otiler
hand to assure to the people OF emma
the fullest opportunity to develop WIN
out molestatiorT their sovereignty ana
independence according to the mooeIn
and enlightened standards peneveo u
maintain among the peoples OF thlS
earth.
At the time this treaty was signed II
was known that China was engaged II.
an attempt to develop the free nstitu-
tions of a governing republic a1ter
her recent revolution from an autocratlC
form of government; that she would re-
ouire MANY wears of both economic ana
political effort to that end, and that
her progress would necessarily be SLOW
Covenant of Self-Deniai.
The treaty was thus covenant OF
self-denial among the slgnatory powers
in deliberate remuneration of any poncy
of aggression which might teno 10 III
terfere with that development, -,
It was believed-and the Whole MS
tory of that development OF the open
door" policy reveals that falth-that
only by such a process, under the pro-
lection of such an agreement, could tne
fullest interests not only OF emma DuI
of all nations which have intercourse
with her, best be served.
In its report to the President an
nouncing this treaty, the american
delegation. headed by the then Secre-
tary of State, Mr.. Charles E. HugheS'
said: .,.,-
TT is believed that through this
treaty the open door in China has at
last been made fact"
During the course of the discussions
which resulted in the treaty, the chair,
man of the British delegation, Loro
Balfour, had stated that:
THE British Empire delegation un-
derstood that there was no representa-
tive of any power around the table
who thought that the old practice oil
spheres of interest was either advo-
Gated by any government or would be
tolerable to this conference. SO lar
as the British government were con-
cerned they had, in the most formal
manner publicly announced that they
regarded this practice as utterly map
propriate to the existing situation.
Japanese Position Announced.
A4 t-