[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.!
391
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
со [February 10
10.16486 SECTION 40
Rre 4 MAR 10,
[4897]
(No. 5. Confidential.) (Telegraphic.) P.
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir C. MacDonald.
Foreign Office, February 10, 1910. I HAD an interview the day before yesterday with Mr. Kato, He told me in strict confidence that his Government had exchanged views with the Russian Govern- ment, whose interests were similarly affected, and that the latter had followed the Japanese example and made representations to the Chinese urging them to consult the two Powers chiefly interested, Russia and Japan, before proceeding with the project.
His Excellency added that his Government felt that they should now put the Chinese Government in possession of a clear statement of the Japanese attitude, and that they had therefore instructed Mr. Ijuín to communicate with the Wai-wu Pu in the following sense: Although the proposed railway would tend to prejudice the interests of the South Manchurian Railway, yet, in view of the fact that China intended it to effect the development of Manchuria and Mongolia, the Japanese Government would not oppose its construction, provided the Chinese undertook to fulfil the following conditions: Japan should participate in providing money, materials, engineers, and contracts for the construction, the division of the shares and the manner of participation to be arranged between Japan and the other Powers interested. The Chinese Government should allow the construction of a branch line to connect the Aigun Railway with the South Manchurian Railway by a line running from some point ou the former in a south-easterly direction, the exact point of connection and the manner in which this line should be constructed to be arranged between the Japanese and Chinese Governments. The communication ends by pointing out that the Japanese, though fully realising that the Aigun line might prejudice the interests of the South Manchurian Railway, had agreed to its construction on the assumption that it would run from Chenchow to Taonan-fu and then northwards, keeping the whole time at a certain distance from the South Manchurian Railway, and provided that Japan should first be consulted in the event of any alteration being made in the projected line.
(Repeated to Washington, St. Petersburgh, and Peking.)
[2631 k-4)