File No. 5315/655.
The Secretary of State to Chargé Blanchard.
Washington, December 27, 1909.
Mr. Knox informs Mr. Blanchard that it has been represented to this Government that France would withdraw its objection to the signature of the Hukuang loan agreements provided the French group receives engineering rights on an additional 100 kilometers of the Ch’eng-tu extension. Mr. Knox says if this report is well founded the Government of the United States is prepared to share equally with Great Britain in making such sacrifices of engineering rights, provided that the original and supplementary agreements are thereupon signed without further delay, and subject also to the following two conditions: First, that notwithstanding the surrender by the United States of such engineering privileges, America’s equal rights in all matters relating to the purchase of materials for the Ch’eng-tu extension and branches is guaranteed, and, second, that a satisfactory arrangement be made for interchangeability of bonds.
Directs that this proposal be communicated to the Foreign Office, with an inquiry as to whether it is acceptable, and that the proposal be repeated to London by telegraph, for similar immediate action, and to Berlin for the information of German Government.
[To be continued in Foreign Relations, 1910.]