The Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
[March 24.]
SECTION 1.
Question asked in the House of Commons, March 24, 1908.
Lyttelton,-To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if the attention of His Majesty's Government has been directed to the protest raised by the General Chamber of Commerce of Niu-chwang against the attitude of Japan in forbidding the construction by China of the Hsinmintun-Fakumen Railway; is His Majesty's Government in possession of a copy of the alleged Agreement by which Japan claims the right of vetoing the construction of that railway; was it received simultaneously with the receipt of the Chinese-Japanese Treaty of 1905, and, if not, when was it received by His Majesty's Government, and does it bear the signature of the Plenipotentiaries of the Chinese Japanese Treaty of 1905; and, if the alleged Agreement does not bear these signatures, has it any validity.
Answer.
The reply to the first part is in the affirmative. His Majesty's Government are in possession of the text of the clause of the Protocol by which Japan claims the right of vetoing the construction of the Hsinmintun-Fakumen Railway. It runs as follows:---
The Chinese Government engage, for the purpose of protecting the interest of the South Manchurian Railway, not to construct, prior to the recovery by them of the said railway, any main line in the neighbourhood of, and parallel to, that railway, or any branch line which might be prejudicial to the interest of the above-mentioned railway.
This was communicated to His Majesty's Government in April 1906, shortly after the Treaty referred to by the right honourable Member. We are informed that the Protocol bears the signatures of the Chinese Representatives; there can be no doubt of its validity.
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