File No. 893.51/873.
The Acting Secretary of State to the German Ambassador.
Washington, May 9, 1912.
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: I wish to thank your excellency for your letter of the 5th instant relating to reported Japanese reservations with reference to Mongolia. As intimated to you in our recent conversation the Department has received no reliable information on the subject from any source except that kindly furnished by your excellency. We have therefore not given the subject any special consideration, but with respect to similar reservations made by Japan and Russia relating to South Manchuria and to North Manchuria, Mongolia and Western China, respectively, we have been proceeding upon the understanding that the reservations in question related only to such rights and interests as were based on treaties or conventions with China, from which it seems clear that the positions of our Governments are quite in harmony in this matter, as to which, moreover, I understand that the British Government takes precisely the same view.
I am [etc.]