File No. 893.77/1616
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador
The American Minister at Peking, on July 14, telegraphed to the Department that he had been informed by the British Chargé d’Affaires that his Government had authorized a protest against the construction of American railways in the provinces of Hupeh and Hunan on the ground that, on September 9, 1905, the Viceroy, Chang Chi-tung, gave to the British Consul General at Hankow a letter promising that in case foreign capital should be needed for railway building in these provinces, application would be made first of all to British concerns. On the 9th instant the American Minister informed the Department that the protest had been filed.
It appears that the letter of the Viceroy, Chang Chih-tung, to the British Consul General in 1905 has never been published and therefore can not be held to defeat a bona fide public concession by the Central Government.
The reservation of whole provinces and larger areas in China for railway construction, for mining or for other industrial enterprise by any one Power, appears to the American Government to be decidedly at variance with the policy of the “open door” and equality of commercial opportunity to which the British Government has subscribed.
It is the opinion of the American Government that none but agreements or contracts for specific enterprises can be held to be of force under the policy of the “open door,” and that such contracts if not executed within a reasonable period, ought not to operate to prevent the necessary development of the region concerned.
The recognition of the claims of any one Power to a monopoly of railway building or other industrial enterprise in extensive regions of China must result in the recognition of similar claims of other Powers in other regions and thus create a large number of spheres of interest in that country which would make a mockery of the “open door” policy and tend to destroy the territorial integrity and administrative entity of China, to the preservation of which both the American and British Governments are pledged.
The interests of the United States and Great Britain in China are identical in this respect and require that an interpretation of the “open door” policy be agreed upon that will protect bona fide contracts and still preserve equality of commercial opportunity. The attention of His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador is invited to this [Page 192] matter as one of urgent importance. It is hoped that His Britannic Majesty’s Government will be disposed to concur in the views herein expressed.
Washington , August 24, 1917 .