Chargé Schuyler to
the Secretary of State.
American Embassy,
St.
Petersburg, December 20,
1909.
No. 600.]
Sir: Referring to your telegrams of November 6
and December 14, concerning the project for the complete neutralization
of the
[Page 239]
railways of Manchuria,
I have the honor to inform you that in compliance with the instructions
in the latter telegram I handed to the minister for foreign affairs, Mr.
Iswolsky, a formal note, with accompanying aide-mémoire, embodying the
views of the Department of State as set forth in the telegram of
November 6, regarding the neutralization project. Copies of the note and
aide-mémoire are inclosed herewith for your information. Mr. Iswolsky
read over the aide-mémoire very carefully in my presence and then
remarked that he was a little disappointed that the whole matter had not
been, worked out in detail, but that he would give the project his
careful consideration.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Chargé Schuyler
to the Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
American Embassy,
St.
Petersburg, December,
1909.
Your Excellency: With reference to the
informal conversation which Mr. Rock-hill had with your excellency
on October 31–November 13, in the course of which he presented
certain suggestions concerning the railways of Manchuria, I now have
the honor to inform your excellency that these suggestions have been
the subject of correspondence between this embassy and the
Department of State, as the result of which I am instructed to
present for the consideration of the Imperial Government an
aide-mémoire embodying the views of the Government of the United
States in this matter.
I take this occasion, etc.,
[Subinclosure.]
aide-mémoire.
All the powers having interests in the three Manchurian Provinces of
China having repeatedly, during the last 10 years, given categorical
assurances of their determination to support the maintenance of the
sovereignty and integrity of the Chinese Empire and the principle of
equality of commercial opportunity, it seems to the United States
Government that nothing would now place this policy on so firm and
lasting a basis in Manchuria as its application to the railroads
existing at present or to be built in the future by completely
neutralizing them to the purposes of commerce and industry. Such a
consummation could, it would seem, best be attained by the adoption
of some plan which would vest in China the ownership of all the
railroads built or hereafter to be built in Manchuria, and by
placing them under the guaranty and supervision of the powers
participating in the undertaking. The carrying out of such a scheme
would require that a loan should be made to China for the purchase
of existing lines and the construction of new ones. The period of
currency of the loan should be ample to make it reasonably certain
that it could be met within the time fixed, and should be upon such
terms as would make it attractive to bankers and investors. The
powers participating should have, during the time of the loan,
supervisory power over the railroad system and their nationals
should enjoy on an equitable pro rata basis agreed upon among the
powers, and during the same period, the usual preferential rights
for themselves and their railroad manufactures. One of the obvious
advantages of the plan suggested would be that those among the
powers that have separately undertaken duties, responsibilities, and
expenses for the building and maintenance in Manchuria of railways
and for the protection therein of their commercial and other
interests would be able to shift a large part of them onto the other
powers participating in the scheme, who would, in conjunction with
themselves, share them in proportion to their respective interest in
the neutralized system. It is belived that by the adoption of some
such neutralized system of railways in Manchuria, under an economic,
scientific, and impartial administration, foreign as well as Chinese
trade and industry would be greatly promoted, and furthermore
[Page 240]
that it would create such
a community of interests among the powers as would facilitate
cooperation in and successful solution of the problems of fiscal and
monetary-reforms now engaging the attention of the Imperial Chinese
Government and of the treaty powers.
