File No. 793.94/251.
Ambassador Guthrie to the Secretary of State.
Tokyo, March 17, 1915—1 p.m.
I yesterday communicated to the Minister for Foreign Affairs substance of your telegram of March 13, 6 p.m.,40 reading to him the last portion as instructed. He said that he had not yet received the contents of the note handed to Viscount Chinda. He first asked if the note was presented at the request of or suggestion of China or of any other Power. I told him I had no reason for thinking so or that it presented anything but the views of the United States. He then spoke quite freely: As to the privileges asked in Fukien he asserted that precedents existed in the way of exclusive privileges granted in certain provinces to Great Britain and other countries respectively and that even if the proposed agreement for the purchase of arms could be objected to, which he would not admit, he could see no objection to the suggestion for the erection in China of manufactories of arms under joint management. He said however that he was not prepared to discuss the questions raised but would consider and answer the note when it was received in the same spirit of friendliness in which the communication was made. He told me the negotiations were “proceeding not altogether unsatisfactorily” and that while he would like greater speed still owing to the use of interpreters the delay was probably unavoidable.
- See editor’s note following the communication of March 13 to the Japanese Ambassador.↩