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to attract foreign as well as Chinese capital to embark in mining enterprises, agree within one year from the signing of this treaty to initiate and conclude the revision of the existing mining regulations. China will, with all expedition and earnestness, go into the whole question of mining rules and, selecting from the rules of Great Britain, India, and other countries, regulations which seem applicable to the condition of China, she will recast her present mining rules in such a way as, while promoting the interests of Chinese subjects and not injuring in any way the sovereign rights of China, shall offer no impediment to the attraction of foreign capital or place foreign capitalists at a greater disadvantage than they would be under generally accepted foreign regulations.

Any mining concession granted after the publication of these new rules shall be subject to their provisions.

This undertaking, said Sir Auckland, corresponded verbally very closely to one portion of the statement that the Chinese Delegation had made, and he was interested to know if China hoped soon to promulgate such a code as has been promised.

To this inquiry Mr. Sze responded that the Chinese Delegation did not have at hand the information which would enable it to give a satisfactory answer. He would, however, refer to the fact that there was in operation in China a law which permitted the investment in Chinese mines of foreign capital to an amount as large as fifty per cent, and that, under that law, several British enterprises, in conjunction with Chinese capital, had profitably invested large sums. As one instance of this he could cite the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company which had, in 1919, made a profit so large that, as he had been told, it had paid to the British Treasury income and super-taxes amounting to over £1,000,000.

Sir Auckland said that he had been under the impression that that company had operated under a special charter, and, further, that he was not sure that the satisfactory profits had been due to the mining code rather than to the richness of the mine that had been operated.

CHAPTER XVI

THE OPEN DOOR

In its statement of the Ten Points or Principles which the Chinese Delegation had made to the Conference on November 16, the following declaration was made:

China, being in full accord with the principle of the so-called open-door or equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations having treaty relations with China, is prepared to accept and apply it in all parts of the Chinese Republic without exception.

Upon a number of occasions in the past the Chinese Government in its communications with foreign Powers had made approving reference to the Open Door doctrine as applied to herself, but this declaration to the Conference, which has been quoted, was the first formal statement in behalf of the Chinese Government that it was prepared itself to accept and abide by this doctrine in its dealings with the treaty Powers or their nationals.1

As for the Powers themselves, they gave a renewed adherence to the doctrine in the third of the "Root Resolutions," adopted November 21, which declares their firm intention

'For instances in which China had referred with approval to the Open Door doctrine, see her reply of November 9, 1917, to the American Government's notification of the Lansing-Ishii Agreement; her communication of July 21, 1910, to the Treaty Powers with reference to the Russo-Japanese Convention of July 4, 1910; and her statement to the Powers giving reasons why she had signed the Treaties and Agreements of May 25, 1915.

To safeguard for the world, so far as within their [our] power, the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations throughout the territory of China.

The difficult matter still remained, however, of giving to the Open Door doctrine a more precise and mutually agreed upon definition than it had previously received, and, possibly, of indicating certain specific applications to be made of it as thus defined.

Open Door Defined. At the eighteenth meeting of the Committee of the Whole, held January 16, the Chairman, Secretary Hughes, after quoting the third of the Root Resolutions, said that "it was manifest that the granting of special concessions of a monopolistic or preferential character, or which secured a general superiority of rights for one power to the exclusion of equal opportunity for other powers, was in opposition to the maintenance and application of this principle of equal opportunity." In order, then, he continued, that the Committee might discuss the principle more concretely, he would submit for adoption the following draft resolution:

With a view to applying more effectually the principle of the open door or equality of opportunity for the trade and industry of all nations, the powers represented in this conference agree not to seek or support their nationals in asserting any arrangement which might purport to establish in favor of their interests any general superiority of rights with respect to commercial or economic development in any designated region of the territories of China, or which might seek to create any such monopoly or preference as would exclude other nationals from undertaking any legitimate trade or industry or from participating with the Chinese Government in any category of public enterprise, it being understood that this agreement is not to be so con

strued as to prohibit the acquisition of such properties or rights as may be necessary to the conduct of a particular commercial or industrial undertaking.2

Sir Auckland Geddes, commenting upon this proposal, raised the points: (1) whether it would not be well to make provision for some simple machinery, in the nature of a court of reference, to which differences of opinion with regard to matters embraced within the resolution might be referred; and (2) whether specific provision should not be made for the recognition and protection of such things as patent rights, trade-marks, copyrights, mining permits and the like.

Secretary Hughes, in further explanation of his resolution, said that it was not the intention "to

'In connection with definition of the Open Door it is important to consider the American declaration contained in the note of July 1, 1921, of Secretary Hughes to Mr. Sze, the Chinese Minister at Washington—a note arising out of protests made by several Powers against a wireless concession granted by the Chinese Government to an American corporation. Secretary Hughes then said:

"Your reference to the principle of the Open-Door affords me the opportunity to assure you of this Government's continuance in its wholehearted support of that principle, which it has traditionally regarded as fundamental both to the interests of China itself and to the common interests of all powers in China, and indispensable to the free and peaceful development of their commerce on the Pacific Ocean. The Government of the United States never has associated itself with any arrangement which sought to establish any special rights in China which would abridge the rights of the subjects or citizens of other friendly states; and I am happy to assure you that it is the purpose of this Government neither to participate in nor to acquiesce in any arrangement which might purport to establish in favor of foreign interests a superiority of rights with respect to commercial and economic development in designated regions of the territories of China, or which might seek to create any such monopoly or preference as would exclude other nationals from undertaking any legitimate trade or industry or from participating with the Chinese Government in any category of public enterprise."

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