[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government. O
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CHIINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
324
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REC
Rro° 24 FEB 10 [February 8.]
SECTION 1.
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[4508]
No. 1.
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey-(Received February 8.)
(No. 4. Secret.) Sir,
Tokyo, January 6, 1930. IN my despatch No. 375 of the 26th December, 1909, I reported the views of the Japanese Government with regard to the American proposal respecting the inter- nationalisation of railways in Manchuria; at the conclusion of that despatch I stated that I was still unaware whether the United States Government had approached fis Majesty's Government on the internationalisation question.
On the 30th December Sir John Jordan repeated to me your telegram to him No. 204, stating that His Majesty's Government had been approached, and had replied that the general principle of this internationalisation commended itself to the Govern ment of His Majesty so far as equal commercial opportunity and the open-door policy was concerned, but it seemed undesirable to consider the question of another international loan for railway undertakings until the lukuang loan had been completed. To this the United States Government had replied on the 16th December that they considered no time should be lost in placing their proposal before the Powers interested, and that instructions would at once he issued to the American representa- tives at Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburgh, Peking, and Tokyo in the above sense. They further said in their reply that they were quite propared to join His Majesty's Govern- ment as a preliminary step in urging China to consent to participation in the Chin- chow--Tsitsihar-Aigun Railway by Japan and other Powers interested.
In the Foreign Office bag received here on the 30th ultimo 1 observed in the Confidential Print the American memorandum of the 9th November and the reply of His Majesty's Government dated the 25th November. I am therefore now in posses- sion of all the facts, and would venture to make a few observations on the inter- At the New nationalisation proposal put forward by the American Government. Year's reception at the Palace I had a further conversation with Count Komura, who repeated the declaration he had made to mo at our previous meeting on Christmas Day, to the effect that the Japanese Government would decline to consider inter- nationalisation in so far as the South Manchurian, the Mukden-Antung, and the Kirin-Hoiryong Railways were concerned, for reasons fully set forth in my above- quoted despatch. In a subsequent conversation I had with Marquis Katsura, the Prime Minister, his Excellency confirmed the statement made by the Minister for Fereign Affairs, and added the somewhat interesting piece of information that this question of internationalisation of Chinese railways had been first mooted by the late railway magnate, Mr. Harriman, when on a visit to Tokyo in 1905; but the Jap mese Government had even then refused to entertain it. Mr. Rockhill, American repre- sentative, aud Mr. Harriman had doubtless discussed the matter in Peking, and the former gentleman had seemingly always kept the idea before him, for he was believed to be the prime mover in the mutter now.
It is difficult to fathom the intentions of the American Government in now bringing forward this scheme, unless-which is more than probable-they are jealous and alarmed at the manner in which Japan is making her position secure in Manchuria, for it must be evident to them that internationalisation could or would not be entertained by the Japanese. The Treaty of Portsmouth, to which they were the first to give their assent, must clearly have shown them the value the Japanese set on the South Manchurian Railway; they must have been equally aware of the provisions of the Peking Protocol of 1905-secret at the time, but, so far as article 6 is concerned, for some considerable time no longer so. The action taken by the Japanese last summer in threatening to commence the construction of the Antung-- Mukden line, and the carrying out of the provisions of the said article 6 with or without permission of China, minst have shown to the whole world the importance the Japanese set by this line. The terms of the agreement of the 3rd September last,
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