File No. 803.77/1693

The Japanese Embassy to the Department of State

On the 25th September last, the Japanese and Chinese Governments came to an agreement the substance of which is as follows:

The Japanese Government engage to withdraw to Tsingtao all military guards stationed along the Shantung Railway, with the exception of a contingent at Tsinan. The policing of the evacuated districts will be left to the Chinese authorities and the Japanese civil administration hitherto maintained along the line will be removed. The Shantung Railway shall eventually be converted into a joint enterprise of Japan and China.

The Chinese Government on the other hand will undertake to construct with Japanese capital the railway lines as understated:

In Manchuria and Mongolia—

(1)
Between Kaiyüan and Kirin via Hailun,
(2)
Between Changchun and Taonan,
(3)
Between Taonan and Jehol,
(4)
From a point on Taonan-Jehol line to seaboard (the route to be determined after survey);

In Shantung—

(1)
Between Tsinan and Shunteh,
(2)
Between Kaomi and Suichow.

In case these two lines are found inadvisable, separate route or routes will be determined by mutual consultation.

As an advance to the expense for the construction of the above-mentioned lines, a loan of 40,000,000 yen will be made to the Chinese Government by the Japanese Government.

It may be noted that the projected lines in Shantung are within the scope contemplated in Article 1 of the Sino-Japanese treaty respecting the Province of Shantung of 1915, the particulars of which were made known to the American Government at the time of its conclusion. Those in Manchuria and Mongolia are substantially in line with the stipulations of the agreement concluded between the Japanese and Chinese Government in 1913,1 a copy of which agreement was delivered to the American representative in Peking in the early part of the last year.