File No. 788/98.

Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.

No. 673.]

Sir: In further reference to my telegram of July 8b and my dispatch, No. 666, of the 10th instant, announcing the conclusion of an arrangement between the Chinese Government and the Russian minister for the opening of custom-houses on the frontier of northern Manchuria and for other purposes, I regret that I have been unable to secure copies of the notes exchanged on this occasion. I gather, however, from reliable sources, that the arrangement, which is to be revised after a year, provides for the opening of custom-houses, or rather branch stations of the custom-house situated at Harbin, at the frontier stations of Manchuli (or Manchuria) and at Shui-fen-ho (or Pogranitchnaya), both on the Chinese Eastern Railway. It also provides that at each of the stations of the Chinese Eastern Railway on Chinese territory, a certain area, varying from 3 li to 10 li in radius, shall be considered as a free zone in which Russian goods brought by rail and which have paid two-thirds import duty can be sold without the payment of the inland taxes. Harbin is, I believe, the only locality at which the zone is 10 li (3⅓ miles) in radius.

I will send the department copies of the notes exchanged as soon as I can secure them.

I have, etc.,

W. W. Rockhill.
  1. Not printed.