Office of the Historian

File No. 788/93–94.

Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.

American Legation,
Peking, July 10, 1907.
No. 666.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith for the information of the department a copy in translation of a note I have to-day received from the foreign office regarding the establishment of customs stations by China at the two points where the Eastern Chinese Railway [Page 241] crosses the frontier, and experimental stations, which were opened by an agreement made between the Chinese Government and the Russian minister at Peking on the 8th instant.

I have, etc.,

W. W. Rockhill.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]

The Prince of Ch’ing to Minister Rockhill.

Foreign Office,
Peking, July 10, 1907.
From F. O. No. 300.]

Your Excellency: According to the terms of the agreementa for the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway, China, is required to establish customs stations at the two points where the line crosses the frontier, and to settle upon a plan for the collection of duties along the line of the railway.

With reference to this matter I now have the honor to inform you that experimental regulations for the operation of these customs stations have been agreed upon by my Government and his excellency the Russian minister, with whom notes have been mutually exchanged and put upon record. The two customs stations in northern Manchuria were opened on the 8th day of July of the present year.

It becomes my duty, therefore, to send this note to your excellency for your information.

A necessary dispatch.

[seal of the wai-wu pu.]
  1. See agreement between Chinese Government and Russo-Chinese Bank, etc., September 8, 1896, Article X, paragraph 2 (p. 214, Treaties and Conventions with China, etc.).—W. R.↩