File No. 893.51/703a.
The Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Washington, December 16, 1911.
A telegram signed by the Chinese Foreign Office and Ministry of Finance, left with the Department on the 14th by the Chinese Chargé d’Affaires, states that the treasury being depleted the situation is critical for both Chinese and foreigners, and instructs the Chargé d’Affaires to negotiate a loan of 2,000,000 pounds sterling with Salomon & Co., of New York, represented in China by Emil Fischer; as security the surplus earnings of the Peking-Kalgan railway is proposed, with the stipulation that 20 per cent be paid in advance, upon the signing of the agreement. The Chargé d’Affaires was further instructed to ask the assistance of the Secretary of State, and was told this morning that the Department could have nothing whatever to do with the proposition, with explanations of the controlling reasons for the present attitude of the United States regarding loans, and the request of the Chinese Government which he had just transmitted was cited to him with emphasis as evidence of the desirability of an early settlement of the situation at the coming conference.1
- At Shanghai, between representatives of the Manchu Government and the Revolutionary Government.↩