File No. 893.00/1029.
Department of State,
Washington,
February 8, 1912.
Trusting that the substance of the inclosed note will be found in full
accord likewise with the attitude and views of the Austrian
Government,
[Inclosure 2.]
The Secretary of State
to the German Ambassador.
Department of State,
Washington,
February 3, 1912.
Your Excellency: In reply to your note of
the 31st ultimo requesting information as to the attitude of the
Government of the United States with regard to conditions in China,
I have the honor to state that since the beginning of the present
disturbances this Government has from time to time as occasion arose
exchanged views with the other interested powers—particularly
France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia, as well as the
Imperial German Government—as to what course was expedient for the
protection of the common interests. From these exchanges it has been
quite clear that all the powers concerned were as one as to the
wisdom of maintaining the policy of concerted action in the
circumstances.
[Page 64]
The unanimity of this view found concrete expression in the identic
note presented by the representatives of France, Great Britain,
Germany, Japan, Russia and the United States simultaneously to the
peace commissioners at Shanghai on December 20, as well as in the
cooperative measures taken for the protection of their common
interests throughout China.
The advices received by this Government, moreover, show that the
other Governments concerned have likewise had similar exchanges of
views and that official statements of policy to the same effect have
appeared in the public press of various countries. It is therefore
evident to this Government that all the powers have up to the
present by common consent not only refrained from independent action
and from intervening in China’s internal affairs, but have acted in
full accord with their mutual assurances that they would respect its
integrity and sovereignty. There happily has thus far been no reason
for interference on the part of the foreign powers, inasmuch as both
Imperialists and Republicans have guaranteed the life and property
of the foreign population, and the latest reports tend to strengthen
the belief that it is improbable that future developments will
necessitate such interference. If, however, contrary to all
expectations, any further steps should prove necessary, this
Government is firm in the conviction that the policy of concerted
action after full consultation by the powers should and would be
maintained in order to exclude from the beginning all possible
misunderstandings.
Moreover, this Government has felt it to be a corollary of the policy
of strict neutrality hitherto pursued by common accord with respect
to loans to China to look with disfavor upon loans by its nationals
unless assured that such loans would be of neutral effect as between
the contending factions, as it has also felt that the present was an
occasion where there might be invoked with peculiar appropriateness
the principles of the lending Governments deterring their nationals
from making loans not approved as to their broad policy by their own
Governments in consultation with the other interested powers.
Accept [etc.].
