793.94/5794
The British Embassy to the Department of State
Aide-Mémoire
A note has been received by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom from the Chinese Government calling attention to an alleged abuse by the Japanese in their action at Shanhaikuan of the special privileges accorded them under the Boxer Protocol of 1901.
His Majesty’s Government consider that it would be desirable that the Powers signatory of the Boxer Protocol should represent in a friendly manner to the Japanese Government their anxiety that the régime set up by this Protocol, in which they are directly interested, should be observed independently of any consideration arising out of the Sino-Japanese conflict.
Sir Ronald Lindsay47 is instructed to ascertain the views of the United States Government and to inform them at the same time [Page 123] that instructions have been sent to His Majesty’s Ambassador at Tokio to speak in the above sense to the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs as soon as his French, United States, Italian, Spanish, Belgian and Netherlands colleagues have been similarly instructed.
- British Ambassador at Washington.↩