File No. 893.77/1501
The American International Corporation to the Secretary of State
Sir: We have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the Department’s letter of the 27th of October,2 transmitting for our confidential information paraphrase of a telegram dated October 26, from the American Minister at Peking, relative to the construction of the railway from Fengchen to Hangchow.
We note that in the Department’s letter under acknowledgement you refer to the Fengchen railway concession. We beg to point out that, as stated in our letter to the Department dated October 23, the American International Corporation does not regard its rights under the contract for railway construction, recently concluded with the Chinese Government, as constituting a concession to build the particular line in question.
We have carefully read the paraphrase of the American Minister’s telegram, and have noted with interest the views expressed by Doctor Reinsch. In this connection we have the honor to state that we consider that the validity of the Russian Government’s objection to the construction of the road in question must be settled between the Chinese and the Russian Governments, before the American International Corporation is prepared to proceed further with regard to this line.
For the Department’s information we beg to state that we have instructed our representative in Peking not to proceed with the examination of the road in question at the present time.
We have [etc.]
Vice President
- Not printed.↩