861.77/1485

The Chargé in China (Tenney) to the Secretary of State

No. 3197

Sir: I have the honor to enclose for the information of the Department the translation of a note received from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs dated March 1, 1920,45 in which the Chinese Government assumes full responsibility for the protection of the Chinese Eastern Railway and the maintenance of peace and order in the railway zone. I have the honor to enclose, likewise, a copy of my reply to this note under date of March 4, 1920,45 in which I express pleasure at hearing of the intention of the Chinese Government to institute measures for the protection of American citizens residing in the zone. In view of the ever-increasing probability that Harbin and the vicinity of the railway generally may become the scene of conflict between Russian political factions I deemed it most advisable to enlist the support of a more or less stable government in the safeguarding of American interests there. In default of such action the possibility was acute that American citizens might suffer extensive losses without there being any authority upon which to fasten moral or legal responsibility.

The Department will note that I utilized this communication as an opportunity for the reaffirmation of those views as to the unimpaired sovereignty of China in the Chinese Eastern Railway Zone, the maintenance of equality of opportunity and the safe-guarding of the full enjoyment of treaty rights by our citizens therein that have been so often and so forcibly reiterated by the American Government in its correspondence with the Russian Government concerning [Page 792] the municipal organization at Harbin, particularly in the note of April 9, 1908, from the Secretary of State to the Russian Ambassador at Washington.46

Very fortunately there appears now to be in progress a readjustment of jurisdictional powers in this region that gives promise of eventuating in precisely those conditions for which the American Government has unremittingly striven during the last twelve years. These events are now being reported to the Department by the American Consul at Harbin in frequent telegrams and it is not necessary to describe them herein. As germane to the subject, however, I enclose a copy of my instruction to that office dated February 26, 1920.47

It is hardly necessary to ask the Department’s attention to the fact that neither in my note to the Foreign Office nor in my instruction to Mr. Jenkins have I expressly or by implication supported Chinese assumption of control over the railway, or any modification of China’s conventional arrangements with Russia. I did, however, think it advisable to refer to this fact in a recent conversation held with the Russian Minister.

I have [etc.]

Charles D. Tenney
  1. Not printed.
  2. Not printed.
  3. Foreign Relations, 1910, p. 203.
  4. Not printed.