File No. 893.811/242
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Guthrie
Washington , January 23, 1917, 7 p.m .
On January 22 Japanese Minister at Peking, replying confidentially to informal suggestion of Minister Reinsch that Japanese and American interests cooperate in railway construction work in Manchuria, stated that he favored the general principle of cooperation, but that on account of Japan’s special position in Manchuria with regard to railway investments as provided in Japanese-Chinese Treaty of May, 1915, he would defer until later further consideration of proposal. He inquired however as to possibility of cooperating in recent American contract for railways in China.