This index to the Records of the Department of State Relating to Political Relations Between the United States and China, 1910-1929, collection provides the dates each reel covers. Government Information MAY NOT hold all of these reels. The record in the library catalog describes the extent of our holdings. For help, or to make an appointment to view a reel, email rad@colorado.edu
On the two rolls of this microfilm publication are reproduced the records from the decimal file of the Department of State, 1910-29, that concern political relations between the United States and China. They are mostly instructions to and despatches from diplomatic and consular officials, and the correspondence, reports, and journals of the commissions concerned with extraterritoriality in China. Also included in these records are notes between the Department of State and foreign diplomatic representatives in the United States, memoranda prepared by officials of the Department, and correspondence with officials of other Government departments and with private firms and individuals. The Lists of Documents or "purport sheets" reproduced on Roll 1 give brief abstracts of the documents reproduced in this microcopy and serve as a finding aid to the documents themselves. The arrangement of the entries on these lists corresponds to the arrangement of the documents in the file.
Since 1910 the central files of the Department of State have been grouped and arranged according to a decimal system of subject classification. This decimal file initially consisted of nine primary classes numbered 0 through 8, each covering a broad subject area. Under Class 7, Political Relations of States, the documents are arranged according to the countries concerned. Each country has been assigned a 2-digit number and the numbers for the United States and for China are 11 and 93, respectively. Thus, the documents reproduced in this microcopy bear the file number 711.93 and concern political relations between the United States and China. The digits that follow the second country number represent a specific subject. This number, in turn, may be followed by a slant mark (/). The numbers following the slant mark are assigned to individual documents as they are accumulated on the specific subject. For example, a decimal file number taken from a document reproduced in this microcopy is 711.933/75. The digit 3 following the country number for China (93) signifies that the subject is extraterritoriality, and the number following the slant mark indicates that this is the 75th paper received on this subtopic.
The documents under one subject classification are generally in chronological order, coinciding with the document number assigned (which follows the slant mark). There are instances, however, when a document file number was not assigned until a date considerably later than the one on which the document was received.
Cross-reference sheets that refer to related records under other subject classifications in the decimal file have been reproduced as they occur, and appropriate cross-reference notations appear in the Lists of Documents. Other cross-reference notations are to documents in the "numerical file," a system used for the central files of the Department of State for the period 1906-10. This numerical system of assigning consecutive numbers to subject case files was replaced by the decimal system of subject classification in 1910.
Before filming the records a search was made by the National Archives and the Department of State for missing documents. The checkmarks that appear by most entries in the left-hand column of the Lists of Documents indicate that the papers are in the file. The absence of checkmarks denotes that the documents were not found; it is believed that they were not among the records when they were received from the Department.
This file contains communications received from and classified by foreign governments and Federal agencies other than the Department of State. Those documents that have not been declassified are not available as part of this microcopy. The National Archives and Records Service does not have authority to make reproductions of such documents available to searchers.
Most of the records reproduced in this microcopy relate to problems on extraterritorial rights in China and include opinions by individuals in the various countries concerned, the negotiations for relinquishing extraterritorial rights, and the abolition of extraterritoriality. Some records relate to the recognition of the Nationalist Government of China. Others concern negotiations for treaties on tariff, friendship and commerce, arbitration, commerce and navigation, and renunciation of war.
The spreadsheet attached below contains a reel-by-reel description of the complete collection.