This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
C.O
09050
TECO
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(28257]
No. 1.
OF 31 AUG OC
[July 26.]
314
SECTION 2.
Mr. Rumbold to Sir Edward Grey,—(Received July 26.)
(No. 198. Confidential.) Sir,
Tokyo, July 8, 1909. I RECEIVED on the 3rd instant a telegram from His Majesty's Minister at Peking to the effect that the Wai-wu Pu had that day informed him that the Manchurian negotiations had been transferred to Tokyo. The statement of the Wai-wu Pu appeared somewhat surprising, in view of the fact that two or three days previously Mr. Ishii, Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs, had informed me that the Japanese Minister at Peking had just been instructed to press on the negotiations with regard to the Antung-Mukden Railway.
In the continued absence of Count Komura through indisposition, I told Mr. Ishii on the 4th July what I had heard from Sir John Jordan. He said that the Japanese Government had no knowledge of the transfer to Tokyo of the negotiations concerning the various Manchurian questions in dispute between China and Japan. The Japanese Government had only received one note about ten days previously--- from the Chinese Minister with reference to the Chentao jurisdiction question. This note had simply been transmitted by the Chinese Minister on instructions from the Chinese Government. The Japanese Government understood that when they had answered it negotiations would be resumed at Poking. Mr. Ishii said that the Japanese Government would be glad if the Manchurian negotiations were transferred to Tokyo.
I informed His Majesty's Minister at Peking of what Mr. Ishii had told me, and I yesterday received a further telegram from Sir John Jordan to the effect that the Wai-wu Pu confirmed their statement, and that the correspondence regarding the six Manchurian questions had been sent to the Chinese Minister here with instructions to treat them with the Japanese Government.
I saw Count Komura to-day for the first time since his illness, and gave him the substance of Sir John Jordan's second telegram.
His Excellency repeated what Mr. Ishii had told me, namely, that the only note he had received from the Chinese Minister was one on the Chentao jurisdiction question. I said that it was possible that the Chinese Minister's instructions had not yet reached him. Count Komura replied that the Chinese Government would anyhow have to ask the consent of the Japanese Government to the transfer of the negotia- tions from Peking to Tokyo. They had not yet done so. As I gathered from his Excellency's tone that this consent would not be readily obtainable, I said that I had understood from Mr. Ishii that the Japanese Government would welcome the shifting of negotiations from Peking to Tokyo. Count Komura did not take this view. He said that the Japanese Government would have nothing to gain by such a course. There was anyhow great difficulty in negotiating at Peking, owing to the absence of anybody speaking with authority, but matters would be worse if negotiations were to be conducted by the Chinese Minister here. The latter had no influence, and it was difficult to see from whom he would receive his instructions. sidered the Wai-wu Pu's intended action as a device to shift responsibility.
Count Komura con-
His Excellency then went on to speak of the general attitude of the Japanese Government with regard to the questions in dispute with the Chinese Government. He said that the only question of urgency to Japan was the Antung-Mukden Railway. As regards the remaining questions, Japan had nothing to lose by allowing the negotiations to be spun out. China, on the contrary, would be a loser by this procedure.
It was essential to Japan that the Corean and South Manchurian Railway systems should be properly linked up by means of a reconstructed line from Antung to Mukden. If the Japanese Minister at Peking did not, within a reasonable time, receive satisfactory assurances from the Chinese Government with reference to this railway, the Japanese Government, in accordance with their treaty right, would proceed without further delay to convert the line into one of a standard gauge. They
[2353 cc-2]