File No. 793.94/541
Minister Reinsch to the Secretary of State
Peking , October 14, 1916 .
Sir: I am confidentially informed that the Chinese Foreign Office is willing to grant the demands relating to indemnities; the Japanese Minister is, however, insisting upon the arrangement asked for whereby regions in Manchuria and Eastern Mongolia shall be policed by Japanese, in cases where the presence of Japanese subjects makes such a course “necessary.” The Chinese Foreign Office is insisting upon definitions as to the nature of the police force as well as the conditions which shall render necessary Japanese policing.
The Japanese Minister indicates that the functions of the Japanese officers are to be confined to Japanese nationals and that they shall not interfere with Chinese or others. He also seems inclined to give the institution of a Japanese police in Manchuria the character of an extension of the right already possessed by the consular courts to employ executive officers known as marshals.
I have [etc.]