File No. 861.77/507
The Russian Ambassador (Bakhmeteff) to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have received your communication of September 14 enclosing the text of a telegram dated September 13, 1918, which has been sent to the Ambassadors in London, Paris, and Rome, relative to the service in Siberia of the Russian Railway Service Corps. This document establishes with all frankness and without reserve the purposes and the spirit of the Government of the United States with regard to the activities of Mr. Stevens and the service corps in operating the Siberian Railway and its branches.
While the purpose of such activities is to secure the effective operation of the railways for Russia and for the service of the present military assistance in Siberia, this important work will be undertaken in conjunction with Russian railway officials and personnel. Mr. Stevens and his associates will be considered as agents of the Russian people and the service corps will continue to be maintained, for the time being, from Russian funds disposed of by the Russian Ambassador in Washington.
I further note that the Government of the United States does not consider that either the Bolsheviki movements or the presence of international military assistance in Siberia or in Manchuria has modified the previously existing rights of Russia or of China, and that all the activities will be performed without prejudice to any previously existing legal, political, or other rights by whomsoever held.
I do not need to express how important and gratifying is this definite and sincere statement of the attitude of the United States and how beneficial is such full disclosure of aim in order to anticipate the formation of opinion based on partial information. And this especially, as certain misconceptions have unfortunately already arisen.
I desire to bring to your attention the contents of a cable, dated September 19, which I have just received from the Russian Minister [Page 265] in Peking. Mr. Kudashev informs me that the American Chargé d’Affaires in Peking has communicated to him a memorandum presented to the Chinese Government and informing that Government of the intentions of the Government of the United States with regard to the operation of the Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railways. While the American Chargé d’Affaires has explained to Mr. Kudashev that Mr. Stevens will act as an agent of Russia, safeguarding her interests, and that there is no intention whatever to create precedents nor to prejudice the existing rights of Russia, emanating from treaties and in particular relating to the Chinese Eastern Railway, nevertheless the Russian Minister was informed “that it is proposed that the Chinese Eastern Railway will be governed by commissioners appointed by the Chinese Government upon agreement with Mr. Stevens.”
Mr. Kudashev is of the opinion that such proposition is in contradiction with the existing rights of Russia in regard to the Chinese Eastern Railway. In fact, according to the contract of 1896 between Russian and Chinese Governments, all of the prerogatives of China with respect to the administration of the railroad are embodied with [in] the board of directors of the railroad company, the president of which is appointed by the Chinese Government.
The duties of the president are specified in clause 1 of the contract, as follows:
The president is appointed by the Chinese Government and is remunerated by the company. He may have his headquarters in Peking. It is his special duty to oversee that the obligations of the railway company toward the Chinese Government be strictly observed. Besides, the president is in charge of the correspondence of the company with the Chinese Government and its central and local authorities.
At present the president of the Chinese Eastern Railway is Mr. Godzun [Kuo Hsiang-hsi], the Governor of the Province of Kirin.
Accordingly, the only legal authorities with which Mr. Stevens could cooperate, and in conjunction with whom he may establish proper service of the Chinese Eastern Railway, should be the board of directors with Mr. Godzun as its Chinese president and, in practical matters of technical character, the administration and the personnel of the railway.
The proposal that special commissioners be appointed by the Chinese Government to cooperate with Mr. Stevens is certainly to be regarded as a modification of the previously existing rights of Russia or of China and might create a precedent which, in the future, could cause difficulties when reestablishing the legal status quo.
[Page 266]The Russian Minister in Peking states that he will feel it his duty to protest against what he regards to be a violation of, legally and by treaty, established rights.
Being aware of the true spirit of the Government of the United States, besides so clearly defined in the telegram of September 13, I assume that the impression created in Peking as to the intentions of the United States Government to enact or to support a scheme, infringing the existing rights of Russia, is due to a misunderstanding.
I therefore respectfully request that Mr. Stevens be advised, that, with regard to the effective operation of the Chinese Eastern Railway, he should cooperate with the existing board of directors and, in technical and practical matters, with the administration and the personnel of the railroad. At the same time I would respectfully solicit that a detailed statement of the aims of the Government of the United States in regard to the service of the Russian Railway Service Corps, as expressed in the telegram of September 13, be transmitted to the American Chargé d’Affaires in Peking and be communicated through the latter to the Russian Minister.
I avail myself [etc.]