893.102H/319: Telegram

The Minister in China ( Reinsch ) to the Secretary of State

Consul Moser42 now here has been informally discussing the question of Harbin municipality with the Russian Legation and has satisfied himself that while as a matter of amour propre the Russians will in all probability consent to no modification of the terms of Anglo-Russian agreement,43 they can be induced to specify, by direct exchange of notes, that agreement is not to be construed so as to impair by any exception the principle of extraterritoriality. Moser has tentatively suggested that the Russians should of their own initiative address the signatories and adherents of the agreement substantially as follows:

“The Russian Government, with a view to establishing municipal administration within the zone of the Chinese Eastern Railway [Page 788] upon a uniformly harmonious and systematic basis, has decided that all administrative acts of the Russian authorities within the zone, including that of the assessment and collection of municipal taxes, should be applied to foreigners only through their respective consuls. Instructions to that effect have been forwarded to the Russian administration at Harbin and will be officially published in the Harbinsky Vestnik after which the measure will be immediately effective”

and that this note be communicated to the American Legation with an expression of the hope that the measure indicated would so far modify the working of the agreement as to warrant our Government’s adherence to it. Moser reports that Russian Legation seems disposed to consider favorably this suggestion which I heartily endorse as affording a hopeful means of settling the question in such a manner as to conserve and fortify our contentions in respect to the extraterritorial rights of our citizens. He also considers that upon the condition specified American interests would be amply safeguarded without the amendments proposed in my number 569 of March 6th, 1915,43 and approved by the Department’s instruction number 268, April 16, 1915.43

I earnestly request your authorization to negotiate for our adherence to the agreement unamended upon the sole condition that the Russians approach us with the request to do so on the basis of their general undertaking that all acts of the Russian authorities vis à vis foreign nationals be enforced through their respective consulates.

Reinsch
  1. Charles K. Moser, consul at Harbin.
  2. For text of agreement between the British and Russian Governments respecting municipal administration and taxation within the area of the Chinese Eastern Railway, signed at Harbin, Apr. 17/30, 1914, see British and Foreign State Papers, 1914, pt. ii, p. 380.
  3. Not printed.
  4. Not printed.