This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government. 362
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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No. 1.
[November 944 174
SECTION 3.
*.....
2 DEC 08
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received November 9.)
(No. 253. Confidential.) Sir,
Tokió, October 3, 1908.
WITH reference to my telegram No. 72, Confidential, of to-day, I have the honour to forward herewith a copy of the Agreement concluded here between Mr. Dresing and Mr. Chow-Wang-Pang, Chinese Commissioners, and the Japanese Government, in regard to telegraphs in Manchuria and the submarine cable from Kwantung Province to Chefoo.
The main points to the Agreement, which is to be signed on the 5th instant, are as reported in the above telegram. It will be seen that the Japanese Government have yielded on nearly all points, and have generally shown a conciliatory spirit.
Mr. Dresing and Mr. Chow, who stayed over in Tôkid on their return journey from Lisbon to Peking, apparently hoped for a much speedier conclusion of the negotia- tions, failing to remember the fact that the Japanese authorities move but slowly, especially when they are, so to speak, fighting a rear-guard action and making conces- sions. The very fact, however, that the negotiations have been brought to such a satisfactory conclusion is evidence, in conjunction with other settlements which have recently taken place, of the desire of the Japanese to live in peace and amity with their neighbours the Chinese.
I have, &c.
(Signed) CLAUDE M. MACDONALD,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Agreement respecting Telegraphs in Manchuria and the Submarine Cable from Kwantung Province to Chefoo. (Private and Confidential.)
THE Undersigned, respectively duly authorized by the Governments of Japan and China to adjust in a friendly manner and spirit of mutual accommodation the questions of the submarine telegraph cable between the Province of Kwantung and Chefoo and the Japanese telegraph lines in Manchuria, have agreed as follows:-
Article 1. A submarine cable will be laid by the Governments of Japan and China between a point in the Kwantung Province and Chefoo. Japan will lay and maintain the section of the submarine cable from Kwantung to within 74 miles off Chefoo, and China will lay and maintain the section of the said cable from Chefoo to a point 74 miles from Chefoo. At the said point the two sections of the cable shall be connected. The Kwantung end shall be worked entirely by Japan, and the Chefoo end by China; but, in order to meet the special requirements of Japan, the cable shall be connected up direct to the Japanese post-office at Chefoo during such sufficient time each working day as may be agreed upon, and said post-office shall have the right to transmit over the said cable from and to places under the direct control of the Japanese telegraph system terminal Chefoo Japanese Government messages as well as private terminal Chefoo telegrams, provided these latter be written in kana. Japan shall pay to China on such traffic a certain terminal fee to be agreed upon. The connecting line between the Chinese Chefoo telegraph office and the Japanese post-office at Chefoo will be con- structed and maintained by China. Japan engages to do all in her power to prevent the retransmission at Chefoo of traffic from or to any other part of China, and she also undertakes, under the reserve of the most-favoured-nation treatment for the future, not to land submarine cables, or to construct telegraph or telephone land-lines, or to establish any kind of wireless communication in China outside her leased or railway territories, without in every case first having obtained the consent of the Chinese Government. All details as to terminal and transit rates over the Chefoo-Kwantung cable shall be settled by a special Agreement,
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