Memorandum to the Russian Embassy.
Washington, April 18, 1910.
The Government of the United States has given most careful consideration to the Memorandum of the Imperial Russian Government, presented through the Embassy at Washington on February 24, 1910.
The American Government learns with regret that thus far the Imperial Russian Government still inclines to the view that the projected railway from Chinchou to Aigun, to be built by China by means of a foreign loan, would be injurious to the national and economic interests of Russia, as seemed, at the time, to be apprehended also of the more comprehensive proposals of the United States.
[Page 265]The rights of American citizens in the projected Chinchow-Tsitsihar-Aigun line, like those of the British company concerned are based upon a contract ratified by the Imperial Chinese Government. In lending its support to this enterprise on the part of its nationals the American Government has felt that it was acting not only in harmony with its traditional policy relating to China but also in full accord with its broad rights under existing treaties. In view of this policy which has repeatedly been recognized and accepted by the Powers, the Government of the United States could scarcely be supposed in any way to commit itself to a recognition of exclusive rights of any Power within any portion of the Chinese Empire under agreements such as that of 1899 between Russia and China, referred to in the Memorandum of the Imperial Russian Government, even if it did not seem incontrovertible that these had been spontaneously superseded precisely by the terms of other subsequent treaty provisions on the part of Russia.
This principle indeed has long been generally accepted by the Powers, including the Imperial Russian Government, notably in the exchange of notes of 1899 and 1902, relating to the policy of equal opportunity throughout the Chinese Empire, and it has more recently been reaffirmed in numerous international agreements until it has become an integral part of the law governing and controlling the relations and intercourse of the interested nations.
Moreover, having in view the rights enjoyed by the Government of the United States under prior treaties, it should be observed that the Government of China obviously could not by means of preferential agreements with any single power dispose of rights which it had already granted by treaty generally to other nations, and the United States would therefore be forced to contend that to invoke, in derogation of general treaty rights, such an agreement as the Russo-Chinese understanding of 1899 might nullify stipulations of treaties between China and foreign powers, and thus seriously curtail the rights of the nationals of other countries.
While the Government of the United States is led to make this candid statement of what it would hold to be the indisputable rights of its own nationals under its treaties with China, it is confident that the relations of friendship that have so long obtained between the two countries must absolutely preclude the idea that the American Government is in any respect unmindful of the important interests of Russia in eastern Asia.
The Government of the United States has from the first freely given repeated assurances of its sincere desire for cooperation with Russia in the matter of the construction of railways in China, and it rests confident in the belief that the Imperial Russian Government is not unappreciative of the assurances so given.
From this point of view it naturally follows that the American Government welcomes the principle of the proposal of the Imperial Russian Government (as to a possible line from Kalgan to Kiakhta) for the especial reason that it is happy to see therein the clearest expression of a reciprocal disposition on the part of Russia to cooperate with the United States in jointly aiding China’s railway and commercial development. It is peculiarly gratifying to the United States to find this new reason to hope that the same principle as that embodied in the American proposals of last December may yet find [Page 266] useful fruition through its appeal to the wise policy of the Imperial Russian Government.
Without further examination of a possible Kalgan-Kiakhta project as an independent one, and without proceeding to a consideration of such fundamental questions as that of China’s disposition in the matter, the conditions of possible participation, etc., the Government of the United States ventures to revert, then, to the Chinchow-Aigun project.
While the Government of the United States, for the reasons already given, could not be expected to admit the right of any third power to obstruct the lawful enterprise of American citizens in any part of the Empire of China, and has, moreover, no reason to believe that Russia would wish to assert any such right, it is at the same time prepared to use its influence with its own nationals and with the Chinese Government to secure the full and friendly consideration of such modifications of the Chinchow-Tsitsihar-Aigun project as the Imperial Government of Russia might wish to propose. The American Government has indeed taken the greatest pleasure in instructing its representative at Peking in this sense.
Looking to the eventuality of avail by Russia of the opportunity thus created, the American Government would suggest, as a practical step, that so soon as an agreement is reached in principle between the interested governments the details of the Chinchow-Tsitsihar-Aigun line and of the possible modifications of the project should be referred to the representatives of the respective financial groups and of the Chinese Government, who are primarily concerned in any phase of these projects, whether the more comprehensive or a single line.
Pending further discussion of broader plans of cooperation, the American group’s representative at Peking and his British associate are desirous of making precise the practical provisions for at least the first stages of the Cninchow-Tsitsihar-Aigun line, to which it is believed there can be no possible objection, and the American Government hopes that, in view of the present fair prospects of more important cooperation and of harmony of policy, the Imperial Russian Government will now find it consistent with its broader policy to authorize its representative at Peking to reassure the Government of China of the withdrawal of Russia’s remonstrance, a deference for which, due to Russia’s universally recognized interests, has alone delayed the efforts of those concerned.