File No. 793.94/560

The Secretary of State to Minister Reinsch

No. 600

Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your despatch No. 1408 of March 6, 1917, requesting specific instructions in connection with the Department’s telegram of January 27, 5 p.m., particularly with respect to the statement therein contained that “the Department recognizes that Japan has special interests in Manchuria.”

In my conversation with the Japanese Ambassador I had in mind nothing more than to point out the difference between conditions in Shantung and those in Manchuria, and, in using the phrase “special interests,” I had reference only to such specific concessions as the lease of the Kwantung Peninsula and the leases of the South Manchuria and other railways with the right to maintain railway guards, et cetera,

With respect to the notes exchanged in May, 1915, by Japan and China the Department has not altered its position as stated in its telegraphic instruction of May 11, 1915.

The assumption of the Legation, therefore, is correct, that the “special interests” of Japan, in the view of the Department, are to be understood as confined to those specific rights and privileges which were obtained by the Japanese Government from China and from Russia by way of international agreement.

The Department also approves of the Legation’s reply to American citizens to the effect that they can fully engage in business in Manchuria.

I am [etc.]

Robert Lansing