File No. 861.77/594

The Ambassador in Japan (Morris) to the Secretary of State

[Telegram]

The following telegram which I am sending to Stevens, gives in full the results of recent negotiations in reference to the Siberian railways:

The result of latest railway negotiations is embodied in the following amended plan which was handed to me this morning by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, with the statement that it contained in substance all the amendments recently suggested by you.1

plan for the supervision of the chinese eastern and trans-siberian railways in the zone in which the allied military forces are now operating

1. General supervision of the railways in the zone in which the Allied forces are now operating shall be exercised by special inter-Allied committee, which shall consist of representatives from each Allied power having military forces in Siberia, including Russia, and chairman of which shall be Russian.

The following boards shall be created to be placed under the control of inter-Allied committee:

(a)
Technical board consisting of railway experts of the nations having military forces in Siberia, for the purpose of administering technical and economic management of all railways in the said zone;
(b)
An Allied military transportation board for the purpose of coordinating military transportation under instruction of the proper military authorities.

2. Protection of the railways shall be placed under the Allied military forces. At the head of each railway shall remain a Russian manager, or director, with the power conferred by existing Russian law.

3. Technical board shall elect a president, to whom shall be intrusted technical operation of the railways. In matters of such [Page 302] technical operation, the president may issue instructions to the Russian officials mentioned in the preceding clause. He may appoint assistants and inspectors in the service of board chosen from among the nationals of the powers having military forces in Siberia, to be attached to the central office of the board, and define their duties. He may assign, if necessary, the corps of railway experts to the more important stations. In assigning railway experts to any of the stations, interests of the respective Allied powers in charge of military protection of such stations shall be taken into due consideration. He shall distribute work among the clerical staff of the board, whom he may appoint in his discretion.

4. Clerical staff of the inter-Allied committee shall be appointed by chairman of the committee, who shall have the right of distributing the work among such employees as well as of dis[missing] them.

5. The present arrangement shall cease to be operative upon withdrawal of the foreign military forces from Siberia, and all the foreign railway experts appointed under this arrangement shall then be recalled forthwith.

You will note the agreement is strengthened in the following particulars:

(1)
Technical board is for the purpose of administering instead of giving advice and assistance.
(2)
The clause in section 2, leaving management in the hands of Russians, is stricken out.
(3)
President’s powers, as given in section 3, are wholly restated. He is intrusted with the technical operation of the railways. He is given authority over the Russian managers and he can appoint assistants and inspectors and define their duties without any references to technical board.
(4)
A fifth section is added providing when the agreement shall cease.

Minister for Foreign Affairs further informed me 13,880 Japanese troops had been already withdrawn and that withdrawal of 34,000 more would begin on January 1. This will leave about 20,000 to be reapportioned to cooperate with the other governments in the protection of the railways. This action and the decision to give you necessary powers indicate definite change of policy which I feel we should encourage as far as possible. Recent developments render it most important we should reach prompt agreement and I hope you will feel justified in approving plan as changed.

I have telegraphed full text of the plan to the Department of State and would suggest that you advise them directly of your views and repeat your telegram to me for my information.

I am convinced that this new Japanese proposal, which so nearly approaches our own, is a sincere effort on the part of the present Ministry to meet Stevens’s views. While I refrained from expressing any opinion to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, I hope that the plan [Page 303] will commend itself to Stevens and that we can, at last, close these protracted negotiations.

Morris
  1. Text corrected after comparison with the original in the Japanese Foreign Office (File No. 026 Foreign Relation/326).