The Department of State to the Russian Embassy.
Washington, June 15, 1905.
memorandum.
The Department of State at once communicated to the Chinese Government the memorandum of the Russian embassy transmitted with his excellency Count Cassini’s note of March 2 last, alleging an activity on the part of the Chinese in Mongolia which might tend to widen the sphere of hostile operations.
The Chinese foreign office has replied to the note of the American legation, inclosing a copy of the Russian Government’s memorandum, as follows:
At the beginning of hostilities between Japan and Russia my board on the 27th of the twelfth moon of the twenty-ninth year of Kuanghsü (February 12, 1904), sent dispatches to the various powers, clearly stating that the region west of the Liao River, from which Russia had already withdrawn her troops in accordance with treaty provisions, and Inner and Outer Mongolia would all be treated as within the area of neutrality, and that the belligerents must not encroach upon them, etc., all of which the records will show.
As to Mongolia, instructions have been sent repeatedly to the colonial office strictly enjoining upon it that no bandits should be allowed to pass out or come in. As to the [Page 762] theater of war in the Manchurian provinces, both Russia and Japan have enlisted bandits; and if a destruction of railway bridges is the result, it is in a region to which China’s military forces may not penetrate, and it is difficult for us to show any partiality in our prohibitions. As a matter of course China can not be held responsible.
The regiments of the forces of the superintendent of trade for the North (Yäan Shih-k’ai) are all stationed in Chihli and are strictly observing the (neutrality) regulations. Moreover, they are far from the theater of military operations, and how can it be said that they are giving any assistance? This is merely conjecture on the part of Russia. As to restricting the area of hostilities and thus lessening the injuries to be suffered by the inhabitants of the country, it is what China most desires. As to the matter of the belligerents not entering the region east of Mongolia west of the Liao River, my board as occasion has offered has uniformly forbidden it and from first to last has observed its obligations in this respect.