The Acting Secretary of State to the Japanese Minister.
Washington, September 26, 1905.
Sir: Referring to Mr. Hioki’s dispatch No. 49, of the 18th instant, I have the honor to inform you that the Department is in receipt of a telegram, dated the 25th instant, from the American chargé d’affaires ad interim at St. Petersburg, in which he says that he has learned through the Russian general staff that they do not hope to have all the necessary arrangements made for the exchange of prisoners of war before October 7; that there are two Japanese prisoners of war at Medvied, who have been sentenced to six and eight months’ imprisonment for insubordination; and that Count Bobrisky, a Russian prisoner of war in Japan, has been condemned to five years’ imprisonment [Page 605] on a similar charge. The chargé expresses the opinion that the Russians would remit the imprisonment of the two Japanese held by them if the Japanese Government would do likewise in the case of Count Bobrisky.
Accept, etc.,