File No. 893.51/1340.
The Secretary of State to the Russian Ambassador.
In the two memoranda handed to the Department of State on the 19th of February the Imperial Russian Government expressed a desire to know the views of the Government of the United States as to the proposal of the Ministers of the six powers at Peking with reference to the appointment of foreign advisers in connection with the reorganization loan. According to this proposed arrangement, the chief inspector of the salt revenue is to be an Englishman; the director of the national loan bureau, a German; and the advisers to the accounts and audit department, a Russian and a Frenchman. In expressing appreciation of the courtesy of the Imperial Russian Government in placing its views so fully and frankly before the Department, this Government is happy to state that on February 17 the American Minister at Peking was instructed to inform his interested colleagues of the readiness of this Government to accede, within certain limits due to a reluctance to overburden the Chinese Government with the employment of unnecessarily numerous persons, to the above-mentioned arrangement, should it be agreeable to China and acceptable to his colleagues. This Government also reserved in the premises all rights, notably those in relation to the appointment if its own nationals.
As to the recommendation of the Imperial Russian Government that the powers should claim that the proceeds of any new loan contracted by China and not subject to the generally accepted conditions of control should be employed first of all to repay any unpaid balance of the Boxer indemnity, this Government could not but regret the injection into the situation at this juncture of any new considerations which might be fruitful of further delay in the consummation of the loan which is expected to result alike to the advantage of China and of all other powers commercially interested in that country and begs, therefore, to reserve an expression of opinion until apprised of the views of the other Governments and of the various financial groups.
Washington , February 26, 1913.