90
2
Moreover, having in view the rights enjoyed by the Government of the United States under prior treaties, it should be observed that the Government of China obviously could not, by means of preferential agreements with any single Power, dispose of rights which it had already granted by treaty generally to other nations, and the United States would therefore be forced to contend that to invoke, in derogation of general treaty rights, such an agreement as the Russo-Chinese under- standing of 1899 might nullify stipulations of Treaties between China and foreign Powers, and thus seriously curtail the rights of the nationals of other countries.
While the Government of the United States is led to make this candid statement of what it would hold to be the indisputable rights of its own nationals under its treaties with China, it is confident that the relations of friendship that have so long obtained between the two countries must absolutely preclude the idea that the American Government is in any respect unmindful of the important interests of Russia in Eastern Asia.
The Government of the United States has from the first freely given repeated assurances of its sincere desire for co-operation with Russia in the matter of the construction of railways in China, and it rests confident in the belief that the Imperial Russian Government is not unappreciative of the assurances so given.
From this point of view it naturally follows that the American Government welcomes the principle of the proposal of the Imperial Russian Government (as to a possible line from Kalgan to Kiakhta) for the especial reasons that it is happy to see therein the clearest expression of a reciprocal disposition on the part of Russia to co-operate with the United States in jointly aiding China's railway and commercial development. It is peculiarly gratifying to the United States to find this new reason to hope that the same principle as that embodied in the American proposals of last December may yet find useful fruition through its appeal to the wise policy of the Imperial Russian Government.
Without further examination of a possible Kalgan-Kiakhta project as an independent one, and without proceeding to a consideration of such fundamental questions as that of China's disposition in the matter, the conditions of possible participation, &c., the Government of the United States ventures to revert, then, to the Chinchow-Aigun project.
While the Government of the United States, for the reasons already given, could not be expected to admit the right of any third Power to obstruct the lawful enterprise of American citizens in any part of the Empire of China, and has, moreover, no reason to believe that Russia would wish to assert any such right, it is at the same time prepared to use its influence with its own nationals and with the Chinese Government to secure the full and friendly consideration of such modifications of the Chinchow-Tsitsihar-Aigun project as the Imperial Government of Russia might wish to propose. The American Government has, indeed, taken the greatest pleasure in instructing its representative at Peking in this sense.
Looking to the eventuality of avail by Russia of the opportunity thus created, the American Government would suggest as a practical step that, so soon as an agreement is reached in principle between the interested Governments, the details of the Chinchow-Tsitsihar-Aigün line and of the possible modifications of the project should be referred to the representatives of the respective financial groups and of the Chinese Government, who are primarily concerned in any phase of these projects— whether the more comprehensive or a single line.
Pending further discussion of broader plans of co-operation the American group's representative at Peking and his British associate are desirous of making precise the practical provisions for at least the first stages of the Chinchow-- Tsitsihar-Aigun line, to which it is believed there can be no possible objection, and the American Government hopes that, in view of the present fair prospects of more important co-operation and of harmony of policy, the Imperial Russian Government will now find it consistent with its broader policy to authorise its representative at Peking to reassure the Government of China of the withdrawal of Russia's remonstrance--a deference for which, due to Russia's universally recognised interests, has alone delayed the efforts of those concerned.
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