Mr. Tower to Mr.
Hay.
Embassy
of the United States,
St.
Petersburg, March 4,
1902.
No. 541.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your telegram of March 1.
I communicated the contents of this dispatch to the Count Lamsdorff,
Imperial Russian minister for foreign affairs, as instructed by you to
do, in a note dated the 3d of March, which I handed to him at a personal
interview on that day. A copy of that note is respectfully inclosed
herewith.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Tower to
Count Lamsdorff.
Embassy of the United States,
St. Petersburg, March 3, 1902.
Mr. Minister for Foreign Affairs: I have
the honor to inform your excellency that I have been instructed by a
telegram from the honorable Secretary of State of the United States
of America to communicate to you the fact that the negotiations
carried on between Great Britain and Japan, which have terminated in
the treaty recently entered into by those two powers, were
absolutely unknown to the Government of the United States until the
day when the terms of that treaty were made public.
I am also to say to your excellency that neither the Government of
Great Britain nor that of Japan was consulted by the United States
Government in regard to the memorandum of the 1st of February, 1902,
upon the subject of the Russo-Chinese Bank. The proximity of date
between that memorandum and the British-Japanese treaty was entirely
accidental.
I avail, etc.,
[Page 931]
Memorandum handed to the Secretary of State
March 19, 1902.
[Translation.]
Imperial Embassy of Russia in
Washington.
The allied Governments of Russia and France having received
communication of the Anglo-Japanese convention of January 30, 1902,
concluded for the object of assuring status quo and general peace in
the Far East as well as of maintaining the independence of China and
Korea, which countries must remain open to the commerce of all
nations, have found therein, with full satisfaction, the affirmation
of the essential principles that they themselves have repeatedly
declared to be and remain the foundation of their policy. The two
Governments consider the observance of those principles to be at the
same time a guaranty for their special interests in the Far East.
Being, however, under the necessity of taking into account, for
their own part, the contingency of either the aggressive action of
third powers or renewed disturbances in China, by which the
integrity and free development of that power would be put in doubt,
becoming a menace, for their own interests the two allied
Governments reserve to themselves the right eventually to devise
suitable means to insure their protection.
St. Petersburg,
March 3 (16),
1902.
Memorandum.
Department of State,
Washington, March 22,
1902.
The Government of the United States has pleasure in taking note of
the declaration of the allied Governments of Russia and France that,
having received communication of the Anglo-Japanese convention of
January 30, 1902, which was concluded for the purpose of assuring
the status quo and general peace in the Far East as well as
maintaining the independence of China and Korea, which countries
should remain open to the commerce and industry of all nations, they
have found full satisfaction in seeing therein the affirmation of
the essential principles which they have themselves on repeated
occasions declared to form and continue to be the bases of their
policy.
The Government of the United States is gratified to see in this
declaration of the allied Governments of Russia and France, as in
the Anglo-Japanese convention, renewed confirmation of the
assurances it has heretofore received from each of them regarding
their concurrence with the views which this Government has from the
outset announced and advocated in respect to the conservation of the
independence and integrity of the Chinese Empire as well as of
Korea, and the maintenance of complete liberty of intercourse
between those countries and all nations in matters of trade and
industry.
With regard to the concluding paragraph of the Russian memorandum the
Government of the United States, while sharing the views therein
expressed as to the continuance of the “open-door” policy against
possible encroachment from whatever quarter, and while equally
solicitous for the unfettered development of independent China,
reserves for itself entire liberty of action should circumstances
unexpectedly arise whereby the policy and interests of the United
States in China and Korea might be disturbed or impaired.