Mr. Conger to Mr. Hay .

No. 898.]

Sir: I have the honor to confirm my telegramb of this date.

On the 27th I had a conference with Prince Ch’ing, who informed me, substantially, that he was in a most difficult position. He had used, he said, every effort in his power to come to some agreement with Russia whereby the evacuation of Manchuria might be secured without the great sacrifice, on the part of China, which Li Hung-chang had agreed to. He had, he said, secured some very material concessions on the part of Russia, but they would yield no further, and he was convinced if China held out longer, that they would never again secure terms as lenient; that the Russians were in full possession of the territory, and their treatment of the Chinese was so aggravating that longer occupation was intolerable; that they must be got out, and that the only way left for China to accomplish this was to make the best possible terms.

The only terms that Russia would consent to was the signing of both the convention and the Russo-Chinese Bank agreement. He said that [Page 274] the convention itself had been so modified as to require the evacuation within two instead of three years; that the number of Chinese troops and the kind of arms to be employed are to be controlled by China, and that no exclusive privileges will be granted by this convention. He said, however, that the Russo-Chinese Bank contract, besides the railroad concessions already granted, was to contain an agreement that China, so far as she desired and was able to, could herself undertake and carry out all industrial development in Manchuria, but if she required outside financial help, application should always first be made to the Russo-Chinese Bank; and if it did not wish to undertake the work, then citizens of other countries might undertake it. He said, also, that a clause was to be put in agreeing that citizens of every country should have the same rights to trade at the open ports and in the interior as they have now.

Notwithstanding this latter clause, the agreement is most sweeping and exclusive. Yet China must sign or Russia will not leave, and unless she goes now her occupancy will not long be a question for negotiation, so far as China is concerned.

I told the Prince that I recognized the difficulty in which he finds himself and his Government, and that he could go any length he pleased in making concessions to Russia, provided the treaty rights of other powers were conserved, and that my Government had instructed me to say that it could not consent to the bartering away for any purpose whatever of rights and interests which it had acquired in that territory through its formal treaties with China; and I added that if a settlement could not be made without violating rights which China had by treaty granted to other powers, then she should first notify these powers of the exact situation. The Japanese and British ministers nave made like representations, and the Japanese minister making a much stronger protest.

Although Prince Ch’ing did not plainly say so, yet I think succeeding events will justify my conclusion that an agreement is already reached and will soon be signed.

I have, etc.,

E. H. Conger.
  1. Printed, ante.