[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[24694]
со
24833
Rece
[July 9.]
SECTION 1.
12 AUG 10
No. 1.
Mr. O'Beirne to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 9.)
(No. 297. Confidential.) Sir,
THE American chargé d'affaires, Mr. Post Wheeler, told me yesterday in
St. Petersburgh, July 2, 1910. confidence that he had had a conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the subject of the Chinchow-Aigun Railway scheme, in the course of which M. Isvolsky had displayed so much irritation that he (Mr. Wheeler) had had to deal with him very cautiously. M. Isvolsky recapitulated to the American chargé d'affaires the conversation which he had had, as reported in my despatch No. 289, with Mr. Straight, the representative of the American group, and I gather that he spoke to Mr. Wheeler much in the same sense as to Mr. Straight, intimating that the objections of the Russian Government to the proposed railway were final, and that, if the holders of the concession attempted to carry it through, Russia would use the various means which were at her disposal to prevent its execution.
Mr. Wheeler remarked to me that the economic objections advanced by M. Isvolsky to the proposed railway were to his mind nothing but a blind, and that the Minister's dislike of the scheme was in reality purely political. As regards the economic aspect of the question, it was true that the Tsitsihar-Chiuchow branch of the line would divert some traffic from the Chinese eastern line, but it would make up for that by opening up a new country, creating an increased population, and thus bringing about a great development of traffic which would of course benefit the Russian line. Mr. Wheeler went on to say that though he had not been instructed by the United States Government to make this statement as to their views, he knew pretty well what those views were, and the United States did not admit that Russia's objections could stand in the way of the execution of the concession. He believed that ground might be broken on the new railway any one of these days. Japan had intimated that she would participate on certain terms, and if Russia did not choose to come in, it was, as Mr. Wheeler picturesquely put it, "her funeral." America would
as soon think of not building a railway from New York to St. Paul because it might if prolonged bisect a line in Canada. The railway would certainly be built as far as Tsitsihar, and the construction of the northern portion would come in time.
I suggested to Mr. Wheeler that Russia would be prepared, as M. Isvolsky had plainly told Mr. Straight, to throw various obstacles in the way of the accomplish- ment of the project. Mr. Wheeler did not seem much impressed by M. Isvolsky's threats on this score. He appeared to think that the threat of bringing pressure to bear on China could not be quite seriously meant. He said, I think, that this would be going rather far; and he also seemed hardly to regard it as possible that Russia would refuse in the long run to consent to a junction of the new line with the Russian system. He professed to think that M. Isvolsky was at heart resigued to the Chinchow-Tsitsihar portion being built and was raising objections to the entire scheme merely in order to secure that the northern portion of the line should be abandoned. The American Embassy seem to have been confirmed in their idea that the objections of the Russian Government are in reality not insurmountable by the language used to Mr. Straight by the Minister of War, who, as Mr. Wheeler tells me, intimated that he saw no objections to the proposed line from a strategic point of view. M. Isvolsky, however, remarked to me that General Sukbomlinoff was a man who was not used to talking to people on business matters, and gave me to understand that whatever the general might have said should not be taken very seriously and did not represent the views of the Russian Government.
I have, &c.
HUGH O'BEIRNE.
[2813 i-1]
482