Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 7, 1915

File No. 793.94/551.

The Japanese Embassy to the Department of State ⁴⁴

undated

1. The proposals concerning the Province of Shantung have been agreed with some modification.

2. Several points concerning South Manchuria have been agreed. The question of residence and land tenure still remaining unsettled, the Imperial Government now make the following propositions:—

a. Japanese subjects shall be permitted in the region of South Manchuria to lease or buy land necessary either for erecting buildings of various kinds for commercial and industrial uses or for agricultural purposes.

b. Japanese subjects shall have liberty to enter, travel and reside in the region of South Manchuria and carry on their business of various kinds, commercial, industrial and otherwise.

c. Referring to the preceding two provisions, Japanese subjects shall produce before Chinese local authorities passports duly issued and be registered by the said authorities. They shall also observe Chinese police laws or regulations approved by the Japanese consuls and pay to Chinese authorities taxes approved by the Japanese consuls.

In civil and criminal suits, the Japanese consul, where a Japanese subject is the defendant and the Chinese official, where a Chinese citizen is the defendant, shall respectively try and decide the case, both the Japanese consul and the Chinese official being permitted each to send his authorized agent to attend trial of the other and watch proceedings, provided that, in a civil suit concerning land between Japanese and Chinese, the case shall be examined and decided jointly by the Japanese consul and the Chinese official according to the laws and local customs of China; further, that in the future when the judicial system in the said region shall have been completely reformed, all civil and criminal suits involving Japanese subjects shall be wholly tried and decided by Chinese courts.

3. As regards Eastern Inner Mongolia, the Chinese Government are asked:—

• First. To permit joint enterprises of Japanese and Chinese in agriculture and auxiliary industries;
• Second. To consult Japan first in case China contemplates contracting either railway loans or loans to be secured by the taxes.
• Third. To increase the number of open marts.

4. As regards the Han-yeh-p’ing Company, the Chinese Government shall engage:—

a. To approve agreement that may be concluded in future between the company and Japanese capitalist for its joint undertaking;

b. Not to confiscate it;

c. Not to nationalize it without consent of the interested Japanese capitalist;

d. Not to permit it to contract any foreign loan other than Japanese.

5. Non-alienation of the Chinese coast. The Imperial Government will be satisfied with declaration as suggested by the Chinese Government.

6. As to the other points, the following to be kept on record:—

a. That the Chinese Government will, in case of necessity in future, employ Japanese advisers.

b. That, in case Japanese subjects desire to lease or purchase land for the purpose of building schools and hospitals in the interior, the Chinese Government will permit them to do so.

c. That the Chinese Government will some day in the future send their military officers to Japan in order to make arrangements directly with Japanese military authorities either for the purpose of purchasing arms from Japan or for establishing arsenal in China under Japanese and Chinese management.

d. That the Chinese Government will grant to Japan the desired railway concessions in South China in case it becomes clear that there is no objection in this respect on the part of any other Power; or that the Chinese Government will refrain from entering into any agreement with any other party concerning the railway lines in question until Japan may, independently of the present negotiations with China, reach an agreement with the party whose interests are, in the opinion of the Chinese Government, opposed to the proposed lines.

e. That the question of the freedom of preaching by Japanese missionaries is left for future discussion.

The original proposal for joint administration of police is with drawn.

As to Fukien Province, the Chinese Government engage in some form that they will not grant to any other Power the right to build shipyard, coaling or naval station or any other military establishment on or along the coast of Fukien Province, and, further, that the Chinese Government will not allow any such establishment to be built with any foreign capital on the coast of the said Province.

The above are the proposals which the Imperial Government have made in order to arrive at an early conclusion of the pending negotiations. If the Chinese Government accept them, the Imperial Government will, of their own accord, announce to the Chinese Government the restoration of Kiaochou to China, in the event of its being left at the free disposal of Japan as a result of treaty of peace, subject to certain conditions of which principal ones are as follows:

1. The opening of Tsingtao as a commercial port;

2. Establishment of Japanese concession in the locality to be designated by Japan;

3. Establishment, if requested by the Powers, of an international settlement;

4. Arrangement to be made between the Japanese and the Chinese Governments regarding the disposal of German public structures and properties.

44. An undated memorandum handed to the Secretary of State by the Japanese Ambassador April 30, 1915.