American Embassy,
Tokyo
,
December 19,
1909
.
No. 927.]
[Inclosure.]
Ambassador O’Brien to Count
Komura.
American Embassy,
Tokyo
,
December 18,
1909
.
Monsieur le Ministre: I am authorized to
inform your excellency that a preliminary arrangement has been
entered into for the financing and construction of the
Chinchow-Aigun Railway. While the initial enterprise in question has
thus far been carried forward by the United States and Great
Britain, I am especially instructed to assure your excellency that
the United States Government is prepared actively to cooperate with
Great Britain in securing China’s consent to the participation to a
proper extent by Japan and other interested powers which are known
[Page 238] to support the policy
of equal commercial opportunity and the integrity of the Chinese
Empire. I take pleasure in adding that my Government will welcome
such participation on the part of the Imperial Government of Japan.
In addition to the undertaking above outlined, my Government has had
under consideration a plan broader and more extensive. It has been
thought that the most effective way to preserve the undisturbed
enjoyment by China of all political rights in Manchuria, and to
permit the development of those Provinces under the practical
application of the open door and equal opportunity, would be to
combine all Manchurian railways under an economic, scientific, and
impartial administration by a suitable arrangement which would vest
in China the legal title to such railroads, the funds thus made
necessary to be furnished under some plan by which proper allotment
would be made to those powers which should be found willing to
participate. The maturity of such a loan should be such a distance
in the future as to afford a reasonable certainty that it could be
met, and the terms should be such as to make it attractive to
investors. I have no doubt that those principally concerned should
retain the right to supervise the construction and operation of the
railway lines until the loan should be repaid, and during the same
period the governments interested should be accorded the usual
preferences for their nationals in the supplying of materials, such
preferences to be adjusted upon a basis which would be equitable as
between those concerned. The reversionary interest and the interests
of the concessionaires in existing Manchurian railroads being at
present vested in China, Japan, and Russia, the carrying out of the
plan in question would require their cooperation, while it would
also require the affirmative cooperation of Great Britain and the
United States, whose special interests rest upon the existing
contract covering the construction of the Chinchow-Aigun Railroad.
My Government is able to find in the proposed plan great advantages
both to Japan and to Russia. These powers-both desiring in good
faith to protect the policy of the open door and of special
opportunity in Manchuria, and wishing to assure to China unimpared
sovereignty of her territory, might well be expected to welcome an
opportunity to be freed from the duties, responsibilities, and
expenses undertaken by them in the protection of their commercial
and other interests, and be able to enjoy the impartial assumption
by the combined powers, including themselves, of the onerous and
exacting burdens resting upon them. My Government indulges the hope
that such a plan might meet favorable consideration on the part of
Russia, and also rests in the belief that American financial
participation might be expected. If the foregoing suggestion should
not be found feasible in its entirety as outlined, a less
comprehensive plan might be reached under which Great Britain and
the United States, having in hand the Chinchow-Aigun arrangement,
might invite the interested powers friendly to the commercial
neutralization of Manchuria to participate not only in the financing
and construction of that line but of such additional lines as future
commercial development might demand, and at the same time to supply
funds for the purchase by China of such of the existing lines as
might be offered for inclusion in this system. The latter
suggestion, while differing to a degree from the one first outlined,
would perhaps approximate if not entirely attain the desired end now
preferred.; The principles in either case find support in the
additional reasons that the consummation of some such undertaking
would avoid the irritations likely to be met through the
uncontrolled direct negotiations of bankers with the Chinese
Government, and also that it would create such community of
substantial interests in China as would facilitate a cooperation
which would simplify the problems of external and monetary reforms
now receiving such earnest attention at the hands of the Imperial
Chinese Government. It is the sincere desire on the part of the
United States that the principle involved may commend itself to the
Imperial Government of Japan. I am informed that the Imperial
Japanese Government at one time had under consideration the idea of
giving an international character to the South Manchurian Railway,
and while the idea was not at any time carried into force,
nevertheless the more comprehensive movement now suggested may find
favor, and I sincerely hope it may.
I avail myself, etc.,
