761.93 Conference, 1930/26
Memorandum by the Minister in China (Johnson) of a Conversation With the Chinese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs (Frank Lee)64
Vice Minister Lee informed me today that Moh Teh-hui, Chinese delegate to the Sino-Russian Conference, had arrived in Moscow and it was expected that parleys would soon begin. Mr. Lee stated that he felt that matters would not be settled until the 1924 agreement65 had been changed as the plan therein provided for, for joint operation of the railway with each nationality having an equal number of directors, had not worked as either side could prevent effective operation of the Board of Directors by absence from meetings, thus throwing the entire business of the railway into the hands of the manager of the railway, a Russian. He stated that Moh Teh-hui had been well received in Moscow, having been met at the station by Karakhan66 and was rapidly getting acquainted. He stated, however, that he [Page 301] feared Karakhan would demand a broadening of the powers of the Chinese delegate, Moh, to include commercial and diplomatic relations and that the Chinese Government would have to refuse to do this.
- Copy transmitted to the Department without covering despatch; received July 17, 1930.↩
- For texts of agreements signed at Peking, May 31, 1924, see Foreign Relations, 1924, vol. i, p. 495; for report on agreement signed at Mukden, see telegram No. 377, October 4, from the Chargé in China, ibid., p. 510.↩
- L. M. Karakhan, chief Soviet delegate and former Soviet Ambassador in China.↩