File No. 763.72/937
The Ambassador in Japan (Guthrie) to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, August 29, 1914.
[Received September 23.]
No. 114]
Sir: Supplementing my telegrams of August 24, 5 p.m., and the 26th, 9 a.m., I have the honor to report that on the 24th the Austrian Ambassador informed me that the Minister for Foreign Affairs had received through the Japanese Ambassador at Vienna a proposal from the Austrian Government that the Austrian cruiser Kaiserin Elizabeth, then at anchor in the harbor of Tsingtao, be dismantled and interned at a neutral port in China. The Ambassador added that the Minister seemed agreeable to the proposal, but would have to consult with the representatives of the other powers concerned.
On the 26th he advised one that a mutual understanding had been readied, and that while the cruiser still remained at Tsingtao, the officers and crew had left for Shanghai. He appeared to consider that this removed the necessity of his withdrawing from Japan.
On the 27th, however, he informed me that he had received a telegram from his Government instructing him, in view of the action taken by Japan against Germany, the ally of Austria-Hungary, to request his passport from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and to leave Japan together with the personnel of the Embassy, and of the Austrian consulates established in Japan.
On the 28th the Minister for Foreign Affairs informed me that he had handed the Austrian Ambassador his passport, and had at the same time instructed the Japanese Ambassador at Vienna to demand his passport, and to withdraw from Austria-Hungary at once.
At the request of the Ambassador I have assumed charge of Austrian interests and subjects in Japans, and have instructed the American Consuls at Yokohama, Kobe and Nagasaki to take over the Austrian consular affairs at those ports.
The orders of the Japanese Government ensuring the protection of German subjects remaining in the country, copies of which were transmitted with my despatch No. 111, of the 27th instant,1 have been applied also to Austrian subjects by an order appearing in to-day’s Official Gazette.
The vernacular press regards the action of Austria with indifference, as she has no possessions in the Far East, and her only man-of-war in this region, the Kaiserin Elizabeth, has been abandoned by the officers and crew. The newspapers only regret that Austria, with whom Japan has always enjoyed the most cordial relations, should have been forced to sever them as a result of pressure from Germany.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩