C. C.
34965
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
(Rea! 25 OCT 09 [September 27.1
CONFIDENTIAL.
[35899]
No. 1.
SECTION 5.
Mr. Rumbold to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received September 27.)
(No. 281. Confidential.) Sir,
Tokyo, September 6, 1909. WITH reference to my despatch No. 256, Confidential, of the 31st ultimo, I have the honour to forward to you herewith the text of the two agreements regarding Manchurian questions which were signed at Peking on the 4th instant. This text was communicated to me this afternoon by the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs. It will be published on the 8th instant, but no other embassy will be informed of it before that date. The Japanese Ambassador in London has been instructed to communicate it to you.
The first of the two agreements deals with the boundary between China and Corea, the Chientao jurisdiction question, and with the extension to Hairyong of the Kirin-Changchun Railway.
The second agreement relates to the undertaking given by China regarding the Hsinmintun-Fakumen Railway project and to the Tashichao-Yinkow (port of Newchwang) line. It also deals with the working of the Fushun and Yuentai coal mines as well as of those along the Antung-Mukden Railway, and along the main line of the South Manchurian Railway. The final article of this agreement provides for the extension of the Peking-Mukden Railway to the walls of Mukden.
The outline of the agreements given me by Mr. Ishii on the 31st ultimo is therefore correct, with the important exception of the passage alluding to the proposed Kirin--Hairyong line, the extension of which to Hairyong is to be constructed on the same terms as the Kirin-Changchun line. These terms are that Japan and China are each to find half the money for the construction of the line, and the chief engineer is to be a Japanese.
or
There is no mention in the text of the first agreement of the word "marts,' special arrangements within the Japanese consular districts to be formed in Chientao. I understand that these arrangements will be on the lines of that in force in the British concession at Shanghae.
Four places are opened to the residence and trade of foreigners, and safeguards are provided when Coreans under Chinese jurisdiction in Chientao are tried for their lives and on serious civil and criminal charges.
Mr. Ishii omitted all mention of the extension of the Peking-Mukden Railway to the walls of Mukden when he gave me an outline of the agreements just signed.
I shall have the honour of forwarding to you in a separate despatch a résumé of the comments of the Japanese press on these agreements.
The Russian Ambassador spoke to me to-day about the two agreements. He said that he was anxious to see the text, as he was somewhat uneasy about the reported concession obtained by the Japanese Government for the extension of the Kiria- Changchun Railway to Hairyong. I did not inform his Excellency that I was in possession of the text, as I understood that the Japanese Foreign Office did not intend to communicate it to any of the foreign embassies before it was made public. The Russian Ambassador said that he had had an interview with Count Komura on the 1st instant, at which he had asked his Excellency what truth there was in the report that Japan had obtained permission to connect the Kirin-Changchun Railway at Hairyong with a Corean railway. Count Komara replied that the whole line would be Chinese in reality, and said that many years would elapse before the extension would be of any value, as it passed through a poor country. M. Malewsky pointed out that, if such was the case, he could not understand why a stipulation as to the extension of the Kirin-Changchun line in the manner indicated should figure in the agreement. Unnecessary stress would seem to have been laid on this extension. Count Komura twice repeated that the line and its extension would be Chinese, and
* Not printed.
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