861.77 Chinese Eastern/823
Statement by the Soviet Commissariat for Foreign Affairs14
On December 22nd, at 7.30 in the morning according to Moscow time, the following Protocol was signed at Habarovsk by the Agent [Page 427] of the People’s Commissariat of Foreign Affairs at Habarovsk, Comrade Simanovsky, in the name of the U. S. S. R., and by the Diplomatic Commissioner, Mr. Tsai Yun-shen, in the name of the Chinese Republic:
“The undersigned, being duly authorized by their respective governments, have agreed upon the following:
1. Both parties interpret point 1 of the preliminary conditions of the Union Government, in full accordance with the telegram of the Acting People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Litvinov, of November 27th of the current year15 and with the Nikolsk-Ussurisk Protocol of December 3rd of the current year,16 as a restoration of the situation which existed previous to the conflict and which was based upon the Mukden and Peking agreements.
All disputed questions which arose during the period of the Soviet-Chinese joint administration of the railway shall be settled at the pending Soviet-Chinese Conference. Accordingly, the following measures shall be put into effect immediately:
- (a)
- The resumption, on the basis of previous treaties, of the activity of the Board of the Chinese-Eastern Railway and the entry of the Soviet members of the Board upon the performance of their duties. Hereafter the Chinese Chairman of the Board and the Soviet Associate Chairman of the Board must act jointly as provided under point 6 of article 1 of the Soviet-Mukden agreement;
- (b)
- The restoration of the former proportion of Soviet and Chinese citizens heading the various services, and the reinstatement in their rights (or the immediate appointment of new candidates, if such should be proposed by the Soviet side) of Soviet citizens who are chiefs and assistant chiefs of the various services;
- (c)
- Orders and instructions for the Railway issued on and after July 10, 1929, in the name of the Board and of the Administration of the Chinese-Eastern Railway, shall be considered as null and void if they are not properly confirmed by the lawful Board and Administration of the railway.
2. All Soviet citizens without exception arrested by the Chinese authorities after May 1, 1929, and in connection with the conflict, shall be freed immediately without being subdivided into any categories, including also those Soviet citizens arrested at the time of the search of the Harbin Consulate on May 27, 1929.
The Union Government likewise shall release immediately, without any exceptions, all Chinese citizens arrested in connection with the conflict, as well as interned Chinese soldiers and officers.
3. To all workers and employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway who are citizens of the U. S. S. R. and who have been dismissed or have resigned, on and since July 10, 1929, is granted the right and opportunity of returning immediately to the positions occupied by them up to the time of their dismissal, and of receiving the money due to them from the railway.
A full settlement of wages, pension payments, etc., shall be made at once with those persons who have been dismissed or have resigned and who do not desire to make use of this right.
[Page 428]The filling of vacancies which have occurred can take place only by order of the lawful Board and Administration of the Chinese Eastern Railway, respectively, and in this connection all former Russian subjects who are not citizens of the U. S. S. R. and who were hired by the railway during the time of the conflict are subject to unconditional and immediate dismissal.
4. The Chinese authorities shall immediately disarm the Russian White-Guard detachments and deport their organizers and inspirers from the territory of the Three Eastern Provinces.
5. Leaving entirely open the question of the resumption of diplomatic and consular relations between the U. S. S. R. and China, until the Soviet-Chinese Conference, both parties consider the immediate restoration of Soviet consulates in the territory of the Three Eastern Provinces, and of Chinese consulates at the appropriate points of the Soviet Far East, possible and indispensable.
Taking into consideration the fact that the Union Government on May 31 of the current year17 declared that “since the Chinese authorities by all their actions prove their manifest disinclination and inability to recognize generally accepted standards of international law and custom, therefore it, for its own part, does not henceforth consider itself bound by these standards with respect to the Chinese Mission in Moscow and to the Chinese consulates in Soviet territory and that it will no longer recognize the extra-territoriality with which this Mission and these Consulates are endowed by international law,” and taking into consideration the fact that both parties intend to restore consular relations on a basis conforming to the principle of international law and custom, the Mukden Government declares that it undertakes to guarantee to the Soviet consulates in the territory of the Three Eastern Provinces all the inviolability and all those privileges which are due to them under international law and custom and, it goes without saying, it will refrain from any acts of force which may infringe upon this inviolability and these privileges.
For its own part, the Union Government renounces the special regime established by it for the Chinese consulates in the interval between May 31, 1929, and the rupture of relations and it grants to the consulates, which, according to the first paragraph of this article, are to be restored in the territory of the Soviet Far East, all the privileges and the inviolability due them under international law and custom.
6. Along with the restoration of the consulates, there shall be immediately granted the same opportunity for the resumption of normal operations by all Soviet economic institutions as that which existed previous to the conflict in the area of the Three Eastern Provinces.
In like manner the opportunity shall be granted for a restoration of Chinese commercial enterprises which existed within the limits of the U. S. S. R., insofar as their operations have been terminated in connection with the conflict on the Chinese Eastern Railway.
The entire question of trade relations between both countries shall be subject to settlement at the Soviet-Chinese Conference.
[Page 429]7. The question of effective guaranties for the observance of the agreements and interests of both parties shall be subject to settlement at the pending Conference.
8. The Soviet-Chinese Conference for the settlement of all disputed questions shall open at Moscow on January 25th, 1930.
9. A state of peace shall be restored at once along the frontiers of China and of the U. S. S. R., to be followed by a withdrawal of troops by both parties.
10. The present Protocol shall go into effect at the moment of its signature.
Plenipotentiary of the Chinese Republic:
Diplomatic Commissioner [seal]
Plenipotentiary of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics:
Agent of the Peopled Commissariat of Foreign Affairs
In conformity with the above Protocol, the new Manager of the Chinese Eastern Railway, Comrade Rudy, and his assistant, Comrade Denissov, are departing for Harbin to enter upon the performance of their duties and both parties are issuing orders for the withdrawal of their troops.
- Translation from text printed in the Moscow Izvestia, No. 303, December 23, 1929; copy transmitted to the Department by the Minister in Latvia in his despatch No. 6669, December 28, 1929; received January 10, 1930. The text as released by the Tass News Agency was telegraphed to the Department by the Chargé in China in telegram No. 1185, December 24, 1929 (861.77 Chinese Eastern/726).↩
- See telegram No. 1054, November 29, from the Chargé in China, p. 362.↩
- See telegram No. 1090, December 5, from the Chargé in China, p. 392.↩
- See ante, p. 193 for translation of note from the Soviet Acting Commissar for Foreign Affairs to the Chinese Chargé in the Soviet Union, from text printed in the Moscow Izvestia, No. 123, June 1, 1929.↩