Mr. Hay to Mr. Tower.
Washington, March 1, 1902.
(Mr. Hay states that Mr. Tower may say to Count Lamsdorff that the negotiations between Great Britain and Japan, which resulted in [Page 930] the treaty of January 30, 1902, were absolutely unknown to the Government of the United States until the day of the publication of the treaty; and that neither the British nor the Japanese Government was consulted in regard to the Department of States memorandum of February 1, 1902, in regard to negotiations between the Russian and Chinese Governments respecting Manchuria; that the fact of the proximity of the dates of the treaty and memorandum referred to was purely accidental.)