File No. 893.51/1794
The French Ambassador to the Secretary of State
Washington , August 4, 1917 .
Mr. Secretary of State: My Government has been informed by the Ambassador of the Republic at Tokyo that the Japanese Government has declared its readiness to admit into the China Consortium a Belgium Group, subject to the following conditions:
- 1.
- The Consortium shall be reconstituted with the six Powers. France, England, Russia, Japan, the United States and Belgium will not give their support to any additional admission.
- 2.
- Belgium will not be admitted to the pending negotiations and will not take any effected part therein until after the War.
From information that has been filed with the Government of the Republic by the legation of Belgium to France, it appears on the other hand, that Japan has further asked Belgium to agree to the appointment of a Japanese financial adviser at Peking. As your excellency knows, the presence of a Japanese inspector in the land tax office was agreed to at the meeting of the groups held in London on January 30, last.
My Government would be glad to be apprised of the views of the Government of the United States in regard to the proposals laid before us by the Tokyo Cabinet toward which it is, for its part, favorably inclined.
In the first place, it does not consider it desirable to broaden the circle of nations represented in the Consortium: those which might apply for admission are either the enemy nations which we have agreed to exclude or Powers that have no financial interest in China, hat is proposed is, not to create a new organism, but to cleanse an organism already existent; so it is legitimate to have this exclusively done by the original allied participants.
In the second place, Belgium cannot be better placed than France or England to take, before the end of the War, an effective part in a loan which should immediately be brought about.
[Page 135]My Government has acquainted the Belgian Government with its views on these two points and would be very glad to hear that they are shared by your excellency’s Government.
Be pleased [etc.]