861.77/2772: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Warren) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 17—10:22 a.m.]
172. Your number 115, October 13, 7 p.m.3 received October 16th. I have communicated foregoing to the Foreign Office and have taken [Page 921] up matter in conversation with Minister for Foreign Affairs. He informally agreed to the proposed course of action without waiting for reply from Italy stating that a formal reply would be made within a few days. At the same time he delivered to me the following memorandum dated September [October] 16.
“It is provided in clause 5 of the Inter-Allied agreement of 1919 for the supervision of the Chinese Eastern and the Trans-Siberian Railways that the said agreement shall be terminated upon the withdrawal of the foreign military forces from Siberia and that all the foreign railway experts appointed under that agreement shall then be recalled forthwith.
As the Japanese expeditionary force which is the last of the Allied forces to leave Siberia is scheduled to complete their evacuation at the end of October the Imperial Government are desirous that the closing of the various organizations created by the said agreement and the recall of the railway experts of the different countries should be effected as far as possible simultaneously with the completion of the evacuation. It is therefore desirable that the Allied Governments should give instructions at an early date to their respective railway experts to proceed forthwith to the winding up of their business so that they may be able to leave their post immediately after the date of the completion of the evacuation and that these instructions should contain a specific direction for the preparation of a full report signed by the respective representatives on the settlement of the common aid fund which should be completed before the closing of the Technical Board”.
The memorandum was accompanied by a copy of a telegraphic instruction to be sent by the Foreign Office to Mr. Hori, head of Diplomatic Mission in Vladivostok, and to Mr. Watanabe, Japanese member of the Technical Board. The telegraphic instruction recites that the foregoing memorandum has been delivered to me, gives the substance of the memorandum, and then instructs the taking of all proper steps in the matter, having particular regard to the following specific instructions:
“1. Members of the Technical Board and other officers in charge shall be ordered home immediately after the termination of the agreement excepting only those required for the winding up of business.
2. Japan’s contribution to common aid fund to the amount of yen 6,700,000 having been placed at the disposal of the chairman of the Technical Board the Japanese Government have no knowledge of the way in which it was spent. It being now necessary to have a detailed account of the disbursements made out of said sum, classifying the expenditures under the head of the Chinese Eastern Railway, the Siberian Railway and the Ussuri Railway, Mr. Watanabe of the Technical Board shall request such an account of the chairman of the Board.
3. Duplicates of the minutes of the proceedings and other papers of Inter-Allied Committee and the Technical Board, signed by the [Page 922] chairman of the Committee, the chairman of the Technical Board or the Chief Secretary should be forwarded to each of the Governments concerned.
4. It shall be submitted to the Inter-Allied Committee whether the arrears of the military transportation fees shall be left unpaid, each of the Governments concerned holding it in security for the common aid fund.
You shall be advised later as to the manner of disposition of the land, buildings, and other articles paid for out of the emergency appropriation and the emergency military appropriation.”
I will advise Stevens of the substance of your [the] above and give him the gist of the instructions of the Japanese Government to its member of Technical Board.
- See telegram to France, supra.↩