861.77/780½
The Minister in China (Reinsch) to the Acting Secretary of
State
Peking, March 18,
1919.
[Received April
21.]
No. 2604
Sir: I have the honor to enclose copies of
a memorandum of a conversation between the Minister of
Communications and Mr. C. L. L. Williams. When my reply, dated
February 25th,22 to
the note in which the Chinese Government attempted to make
reservations concerning the Chinese-Eastern Railway had been handed
to the Acting Minister, I immediately sent Mr. Williams to talk over
the matter with the Minister of Communications. The results of his
conversation are given in the enclosed memorandum.
The important matter is—Mr. Tsao Ju-lin accepted the note of February
25th as final.
I have [etc.]
[Page 603]
[Enclosure]
Memorandum of an Interview between the
Chinese Minister of Communications (Ts’ao Ju-lin) and the American
Second Secretary of Legation (Williams), February 26,
1919
Mr. Williams called on the Minister of Communications by
appointment to present to him a copy of the Legation’s reply to
the Foreign Office dated February 25th, 1919, in reply to the
suggestion of the Foreign Office that in the Technical Board
operating the Chinese Eastern Railway the Chinese Delegate
should have equal rank with the Chairman of the Board. Under the
instructions of the American Minister in handing the Legation’s
reply to Mr. Tsao, Mr. Williams stated first, that the Board
would assume control only of those functions hitherto carried
out by the Russian authorities, and that the pre-existing
Chinese rights in this railway were in no way affected by the
present proposals; second, that while the American Government
recognized fully the special interest of China in this line and
sympathized with her desire to take a prominent part in the
temporary management thereof now proposed, it was an essential
feature of the general plan of the operation of the Siberian
railways made necessary by the exigencies of the Siberian
situation, that the Chinese Eastern Railway should be operated
as an integral part of the Siberian railway system, and that
therefore any special and individual control arrangements for
this line were impractical. Mr. Williams added that the Legation
felt sure that in view of the special Chinese interests in the
line, Mr. Stevens and the Technical Board would consider
favorably the employment of the maximum number of qualified
Chinese as Technical Experts under the Board. In reply, Mr. Tsao
reiterated the Chinese view that inasmuch as the Chinese Eastern
Railway is a joint Sino-Russian undertaking, if the Russian
partner should prove unable to carry on his functions under the
contract, the Chinese partner would naturally assume them until
the Russian partner was again in a position to do so, and asked
if the Legation’s present reply was to be considered final. Mr.
Williams replied that while the negotiations were not directly
in the hands of the Legation at Peking, and while any special
considerations which Mr. Tsao might care to bring forward could
be submitted to the government at Washington, there was no
reason to believe that the decision to include the Chinese
Eastern Railway under the general scheme of control would be
modified.
Mr. Tsao thereupon appeared to accept the matter as a fait accompli. He asked if Mr. Williams’
remarks in regard to the employment of Chinese technical men
were to be taken as a promise by the Legation. Mr. Williams
replied that the Legation was not in
[Page 604]
a position to make any definite promises
in this regard as this question would have to be dealt with by
the Technical Board; his remarks were to be taken simply as
representing the attitude of the American Government
representative on that Board. Mr. Tsao thereupon expressed the
hope that there would be no interference with the Chinese right
to guard the railway, and asked that this point be brought to
the attention of the American Government. He added that in the
past the expenses of the railway guards had been met out of the
revenues of the line and requested that this practice be
discontinued.
In the course of the conversation Mr. Tsao explained that the
Chinese Government had no desire to take advantage of Russia’s
present weakness to seize the Russian rights in the line; the
sooner Russia again became in a position to assume her duties
under the Chinese Eastern agreement, the better pleased China
would be; it was simply that [because?] Russia at the present
moment is not able to carry out her duties, China feels that it
is her right and duty to assume them.
