TREATY REGULATING TARIFF RELATIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA 1

Signed at Peiping (Peking), July 25, 1928

The United States of America and the Republic of China, both being animated by an earnest desire to maintain the good relations which happily subsist between the two countries, and wishing to extend and consolidate the commercial intercourse between them, have, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty, designed to facilitate these objects named as their plenipotentiaries the President of the United States of America, J. V. A. MacMurray, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to China and the Government Council of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China, T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance of the Nationalist Government of the Republic of China, who, having met and duly exchanged their full powers which have been found to be in proper form, have agreed upon the following treaty between the two countries.

ARTICLE ONE

All provisions which appear in treaties hitherto concluded and in force between the United States of America and China relating to rates of duty on imports and exports of merchandise, drawbacks, transit dues and tonnage dues in China shall be annulled and become inoperative, and the principle of complete national tariff autonomy shall apply, subject, however, to the condition that each of the high contracting parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other with respect to the above specified and any related matters treatment in no way discriminatory as compared with the treatment accorded to any other country.

The nationals of neither of the high contracting parties shall be compelled under any pretext whatever to pay within the territories of the other party any duties, internal charges or taxes upon their importations and exportations other or higher than those paid by nationals of the country or by nationals of any other country.

The above provisions shall become effective on January 1st, 1929, provided that the exchange of ratifications hereinafter provided shall have taken place by that date, otherwise, at a date four months subsequent to such exchange of ratifications.

ARTICLE Two

The English and Chinese texts of this treaty have been carefully compared and verified but, in the event of there being a difference of meaning between the two, the sense expressed in the English text shall be held to prevail.

This treaty shall be ratified by the high contracting parties in accordance

1 State Dept. press notice, July 27, 1928.

with their respective constitutional methods, and the ratifications shall be exchanged as soon as possible.

In testimony whereof, we, the undersigned, by virtue of our respective powers have signed this treaty in duplicate in the English and Chinese languages and have affixed our respective seals.

Done at Peiping the twenty-fifth day of July, 1928, corresponding to the twenty-fifth day of the seventh month of the 17th year of the Republic of China.

(SIGNED) J. V. A. MACMURRAY. T. V. SOONG.

GENERAL PACT FOR THE RENUNCIATION OF WAR1

Signed in Paris, August 27, 1928

The President of the German Reich, the President of the United States of America, His Majesty the King of the Belgians, the President of the French Republic, His Majesty the King of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the seas, Emperor of India, His Majesty the King of Italy, His Majesty the Emperor of Japan, the President of the Republic of Poland, the President of the Czechoslovak Republic.

Deeply sensible of their solemn duty to promote the welfare of mankind; Persuaded that the time has come when a frank renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy should be made to the end that the peaceful and friendly relations now existing between their peoples may be perpetuated;

Convinced that all changes in their relations with one another should be sought only by pacific means and be the result of a peaceful and orderly process, and that any signatory Power which shall hereafter seek to promote its national interests by resort to war should be denied the benefits furnished by this treaty;

Hopeful that, encouraged by their example, all the other nations of the world will join in this humane endeavor and by adhering to the present treaty as soon as it comes into force bring their peoples within the scope of its beneficent provisions, thus uniting the civilized nations of the world in a common renunciation of war as an instrument of their national policy;

Have decided to conclude a treaty and for that purpose have appointed as their respective plenipotentiaries:

The President of the German Reich: Dr. Gustav Stresemann, Minister for Foreign Affairs;

The President of the United States of America: The Honorable Frank B. Kellogg, Secretary of State;

His Majesty the King of the Belgians: Mr. Paul Hymans, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister of State;

1 1 Reprinted from text supplied by the Dept. of State, Washington, D.C.

The President of the French Republic: Mr. Aristide Briand, Minister for Foreign Affairs;

His Majesty the King of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the seas, Emperor of India:

For Great Britain and Northern Ireland and all parts of the British Empire which are not separate members of the League of Nations: The Right Honourable Lord Cushendun, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs;

For the Dominion of Canada: The Right Honourable William Lyon Mackenzie King, Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs;

For the Commonwealth of Australia: The Honourable Alexander John McLachlan, Member of the Executive Federal Council;

For the Dominion of New Zealand: The Honourable Sir Christopher James Parr, High Commissioner for New Zealand in Great Britain;

For the Union of South Africa: The Honourable Jacobus Stephanus Smit, High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa in Great Britain; For the Irish Free State: Mr. William Thomas Cosgrave, President of the Executive Council;

For India: The Right Honourable Lord Cushendun, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Acting Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. His Majesty the King of Italy: Count Gaetano Manzoni, His Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary at Paris;

His Majesty the Emperor of Japan: Count Uchida, Privy Councillor; The President of the Republic of Poland: Mr. A. Zaleski, Minister for Foreign Affairs;

The President of the Czechoslovak Republic: Dr. Eduard Benès, Minister for Foreign Affairs;

who, having communicated to one another their full powers found in good and due form have agreed upon the following articles:

ARTICLE I

The high contracting parties solemnly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.

ARTICLE II

The high contracting parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific

means.

ARTICLE III

The present treaty shall be ratified by the high contracting parties named in the preamble in accordance with their respective constitutional require

ments, and shall take effect as between them as soon as all their several instruments of ratification shall have been deposited at Washington.

This treaty shall, when it has come into effect as prescribed in the preceding paragraph, remain open as long as may be necessary for adherence by all the other Powers of the world. Every instrument evidencing the adherence of a Power shall be deposited at Washington and the treaty shall immediately upon such deposit become effective as between the Power thus adhering and the other Powers parties hereto.

It shall be the duty of the Government of the United States to furnish each government named in the preamble and every government subsequently adhering to this treaty with a certified copy of the treaty and of every instrument of ratification or adherence. It shall also be the duty of the Government of the United States telegraphically to notify such governments immediately upon the deposit with it of each instrument of ratification or adherence. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed this Treaty in the French and English languages both texts having equal force, and hereunto affix their seals.

Done at Paris the twenty-seventh day of August in the year one thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight.

NOTE ADDRESSED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES ON AUgust 27, 1928, TO THE GOVERNMENTS OF ALBANIA, AFGHANISTAN, argentina, AUSTRIA, BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, BULGARIA, CHILE, CHINA, COLOMBIA, COSTA RICA, CUBA, DENMARK, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EGYPT, ESTONIA, ETHIOPIA, FINLAND, GREECE, GUATEMALA, HAITI, HONDURAS, HUNGARY, ICELAND, LATVIA, LIBERIA, LITHUANIA, LUXEMBURG, MEXICO, NETHERLANDS, NICARAGUA, NORWAY, PANAMA, PARAGUAY, PERSIA, PERU, PORTUGAL, RUMANIA, SALVADOR, KINGDOM OF THE SERBS, CROATS AND SLOVENS, SIAM, SPAIN, SWEDEN, SWITZERLAND, TURKEY, URUGUAY, VENEZUELA.1

I have the honor to inform you that the Governments of Germany, the United States of America, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Union of South Africa, Irish Free State, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, and Czechoslovakia have this day signed in Paris a treaty binding them to renounce war as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another and to seek only by pacific means the settlement or solution of all disputes which may arise among them.

This treaty, as Your Excellency is aware, is the outcome of negotiations which commenced on June 20, 1927, when M. Briand, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the French Republic submitted to my government a draft of a pact of perpetual friendship between France and the United States. In the course of the subsequent negotiations this idea was extended so as to include as original signatories of the anti-war treaty not only France and the United States but also Japan, the British Empire and all the governments which participated with France and Great Britain in the Locarno agreements, namely Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Italy and Poland. This procedure met the point raised by the British Government in its note of May 19, 1928, where it stated that the treaty from its very nature was not one which concerned that government alone, but was one in which that government could not undertake to participate otherwise than jointly and simultaneously with the governments in the Dominions and the Government of India; it also settled satisfactorily the question whether there was any inconsistency between the new treaty and the Treaty of Locarno, thus meeting the observations of the French Government as to the necessity of extending the number of original signatories.

The decision to limit the original signatories to the Powers named above, that is, to the United States, Japan, the parties to the Locarno treaties, the British Dominions and India, was based entirely upon practical considerations. It was the desire of the United States that the negotiations be successfully concluded at the earliest possible moment and that the treaty become operative without the delay that would inevitably result were prior universal acceptance made a condition precedent to its coming into force. 1 State Department press release August 27, 1928. An invitation to adhere to the Pact was extended to Russia by the Government of France.