[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
436
[B]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(7625)
No. 1.
8011
REC
REGP18 MAR 10)
[March 5.]
SECTION 2.
Sir C. MacDonald to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 5.) (No. 33. Very Confidential.) Sir,
Tokyo, February 5, 1910. AT Count Komura's last weekly reception his Excellency spoke to me on the subject of the Chinchow-Aigun Railway, the Russian views regarding which had just reached the Japanese Government. His Excellency said that, as I was aware, his Government were from the first averse to the building of the railway, because they considered it would compete with the South Manchurian. They were, however, well aware that in the matter of this railway the case which they could put forward was nothing like as strong as the one which they successfully pressed in the matter of the Hsin-min-tun-Fakumen extension. In the first place the starting-point of the railway, Chinchow, was upwards of 100 miles from the South Manchurian, and as the railway progressed the distance became greater. As to the Tsitsihar argument, it was true that traffic from the west would be diverted, much in the same way as it would in the Fakumen extension, but not to the same extent. Besides, the Japanese Government recognised that this was an argument which might apply to any feeder of the Chinese Eastern Railway to the south, and therefore could not be pressed. This being the case, and also because an English firm of contractors was interested, they were prepared to withdraw their opposition and consent to the construction of the railway, provided they were allowed a certain measure of participation in financing and construction. How much participation, or what form it would take, they could not, of course, possibly state definitely until they knew something more about the line, At present they knew nothing, or next to nothing.
Since receiving the Russian objections to the construction of the line, his Excellency was of opinion that the matter had taken an altogether different com- plexion, and if negotiations were to be commenced they would have to take place on an altogether different and, his Excellency thought, a more complicated basis.
There can be no doubt that the Russian objections to the line will receive the cordial support of the Japanese Government, and that the whole question raised by the American Government of railways in Manchuria is having the effect of establishing very close relations between Japan and Russia.
In selecting this trace for the railway, more particularly when the line was continued from Tsitsihar to Aigun, Mr. Straight and his associates seem to have courted disaster. It is inconceivable how they could have hoped that, under the cir- cumstances, such a line would not have been strongly opposed by both Russia and, in only a slightly lesser degree, by Japan. It is possible that they were aware of the pro- spective opposition, and for this reason the preliminary agreement was made secretly, but this secrecy could not be maintained, and if, as it is stated, the Imperial consent has been given to the construction of the railway, the outlook is not reassuring.
I have, &c.
CLAUDE M. MACDONALD.
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