File No. 5315/511a.
The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.1
Washington, October 17, 1909.
Mr. Wilson says that the substantial agreement as to the Hukuang loan seems some time since to have been reached at Peking between the Chinese Government and the representatives of the four groups, only one or two details of phraseology still remaining to be made definite, and that department’s reports tend to the impression that [Page 207] now the acquiescence of the British Government alone is necessary to a consummation in which five powers are greatly interested.
Says that inasmuch as the relative British interest involved is now no less than it was when the agreement was about to be confirmed without American participation, and assuming always that the congeniality of our policies in the Far East has made American participation with Great Britain as agreeable to the British as it is to the American Government, the Government of the United States would be disappointed if further delay for the reason reported should confirm the impression above mentioned.
Mr. Wilson further says that this Government understands that there would be no hesitation, unless on the part of the British, in proceeding at once to final settlement; and viewing broadly the principle of cooperation and the important bearings of the interests involved, the Government of the United States would be constrained to feel keen disappointment if the Government of Great Britain did not see its way clear to cause to be reflected by the British group an attitude as conciliatory as that of the other cooperating interests.
Directs him to take early opportunity to impress the foregoing upon the minister for foreign affairs and thereafter inform the department by telegraph as to the proposed policy of Great Britain in this negotiation, which it seems very desirable to complete at an early date.
- Repeated to American legation, Peking.↩