Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 4, 1917

File No. 893.77/1584

Minister Reinsch to the Secretary of State

No. 1328

American Legation,
Peking, January 3, 1917.

Sir: Supplementing my telegram of December 29, 7 p.m., I have the honor to enclose for the information of the Department a copy of the note (No. 548) which I addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, under date of the 30th ultimo, in which I requested to be informed in regard to the Russo-Asiatic Bank’s ‘Pin-Hei” Railway Contract of March 27 last, a copy of which was transmitted to the Department with my despatch No. 1037 of April 20, 1916,²⁵ as to the attitude of the Chinese Government in this matter with respect to the rights granted to the American Group under the Preliminary Agreement of October 6, 1909, concerning the Chinchow-Aigun Railway.²⁶ It seemed advisable to put on record such an indication of continued interest in the rights vested in the American Group, for the purpose not only of reserving those rights but also of letting it be known, in view of the Russian protest against the construction of the Fengchen-Ninghsia section of the railways contemplated by the Siems-Carey contracts, as reported in my despatch No. 1282 to of November 28 last,²⁷ and previous correspondence, that our Government has not allowed the lapse of the American interests created by the Chinchow-Aigun Agreement, and that Russian interests may be expected to regard our rights now with no less respect than they did at the time when they offered cooperation in the proposed Kalgan-Kiakhta line as an alternative to the Chinchow-Aigun project. It was furthermore felt to be advisable to address to the Foreign Office such an inquiry in regard to the Russian contract which appears to conflict with the rights of our nationals, in order that a similar inquiry in regard to the Japanese contracts for railways in South Manchuria, made under date of October 13 last (a copy of which I am forwarding in another despatch—No. 1331—of today’s date), might not seem to stand alone in such a way as to imply any discrimination between apparent infringements of our rights in South Manchuria by the Japanese and in North Manchuria by the Russians.

I have [etc.]

Paul S. Reinsch

[Inclosure]

Minister Reinsch to the Minister for Foreign Affairs

No. 548

American Legation,
Peking, December 30, 1916.

Excellency: I have the honor to invite the attention of your excellency to the note which I addressed under date of October 13 last²⁸ to the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs at that time, in which I referred to the rights granted to the American Group by a preliminary agreement, signed October 6, 1909, in respect to the construction of a railway from Chinchow to Aigun, through Tsitsihar, and requested such information as would make possible a determination whether certain reported concessions to Japanese interests for the construction of railways’ in South Manchuria are wholly compatible with the existing rights of American citizens.

Having been advised of the conclusion of an agreement, on March 27 last, whereby the Russo-Asiatic Bank was authorized to float a loan for the construction of a railway from Harbin to Heihofu, with a branch from Mergen to Tsitsihar, thus including one section of the line the construction of which was the subject of the American agreement referred to above, I have now the honor to inquire further what is the attitude of the Chinese Government towards the rights granted to and reserved by the American Group under the preliminary agreement of October 6, 1909: and I have further to express the hope and expectation that the Chinese Government will not take any action in this matter which might impair or compromise the American interests involved, without such previous reference to this Legation as would afford the American Group the opportunity to be consulted as to its rights therein.

I avail myself [etc.]

Paul S. Reinsch

25. For. Rel. 1916, p. 169.
26. For. Rel. 1910, p. 232.
27. For. Rel. 1916, p. 207.
28. Inclosure 2 in Mr. Reinsch’s No. 1331, January 3, 1917, post, p. 168.