Office of the Historian

861.77/1647a: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Davis)

[Paraphrase]
Washington, August 5, 1920—1 p.m.

838. Recently the British Minister at Peking, Alston, came to Washington en route to England for a vacation. While here, he and the British Ambassador had an informal conference61 with Ambassador Morris, the Under Secretary of State, and the Secretary [Page 705] of State. Questions relating to the Far East, especially the Chinese Eastern Railway, were discussed. After the conference the Minister sent a telegram to his home Government in substance as follows:

  • “A. All agreed as to the necessity of continuing international control over the Chinese Eastern until such a time as it can revert to its original condition under Russia when the government of that country is reconstituted. Such control should be in the hands of China, France, Great Britain, Japan, Russia, and the United States, the countries whose representatives were on the Technical Commission.
  • “B. Chinese troops should be entrusted with guarding the railway as was agreed upon in 1918, and also the line to the Vladivostok terminal should be guarded by Chinese soldiers.
  • “C. It was recognized that serious difficulty was involved in having the consortium finance the railway for following reasons:
    • “(1) The fact that in case of default China has the right to take possession of the railway in accordance with the agreement between China and Russia.
    • “(2) The matter of a guarantee.

“The proposal was made that for financing the railroad use be made of enough of the Russian gold which has been regained from Germany.”

I call your attention to the fact that the first point under C may be misleading. The versions of 1896 railway contract which have been published contain no such provision.

From this talk and others with Alston and Ambassador Geddes, I have been gratified to realize the common interests of Great Britain and the United States in the Far East and to find the British willing to work with us in opposition to the exploitation of particular spheres of interest and to make the open door policy and the maintenance of the administrative and territorial integrity of China a reality.

Colby
  1. On July 26.↩