701.6193/6: Telegram
The Minister in China (Crane) to the Secretary of State
[Received 9:35 p.m.]
273. My 270.10 Following is text of Presidential mandate dated September 23:
“The Ministry for Foreign Affairs reports that of late years contending factions have sprung up everywhere in Russia and political [Page 765] parties have been in constant disputes there so that up to the present time a government representing the united will of the people has not been organized. Official relations between China and Russia are temporarily impossible of resumption.
The diplomatic and consular officers of Russia accredited to China have long since lost their qualifications as representatives of the nation and it is impossible that they should continue to perform the official duties arising from the responsibilities that devolve upon them. This view has already been communicated orally to the Russian Minister in Peking. The Ministry is now compelled to request that it be publicly announced at once in a Presidential mandate that this Government ceases to recognize in their official capacities the diplomatic and consular officials of Russia now functioning in China.
The several allegations made by the report quoted above are self evident true statements of the facts. But the Chinese Government is deeply mindful of the propinquity of the respective territorial rights of China and Russia and of the strong friendship that has never ceased to exist between the two [Nations] and on this account, although the Government at this time [ceases] to accord official recognition to the diplomatic and consular officials of aforesaid, it, as a matter of course, entertains for the people of Russia as sincere a friendship as it has from the beginning. To all law abiding Russian citizens residing in China, and to their lives and property, the Government will as formerly afford complete protection, while it will in that which concerns the internal disputes of Russia, continue to maintain an attitude of neutrality, governed therein by regard [for] the policies of the Allied Nations.
In the matter of the Russian concessions, the land utilized by the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Russian citizens residing in different parts of China, and all subjects connected therewith, the ministries controlling these matters and the high provincial authorities are instructed to devise and execute appropriate measures. Seal of the President. Signed by all the members of the Cabinet.”
- Not printed.↩