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Y. VAST
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
[B]
AFFAIRS OF CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
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13687
RECO
[June 3.]
SECTION 1.
No. 1.
REG? 16 JUN 11
Mr. Rumbold to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 3.)
(No. 114. Confidential.) Sir,
Tokyo, May 8, 1911. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith a précis by Mr. Hobart-Hampden of a leading article in the "Jiji Shimpo" of yesterday's date on the subject of Japanese rights and interests in Manchuria. This article, as you will observe, has been written with especial reference to the recently concluded Four-Power loan to China. The gist of the article is that Japan has large vested interests in Manchuria. Should the Chinese by themselves, or Chinese and foreigners together, as a result of the loan, embark on enterprises in Manchuria which prejudicially affect Japanese interests without having first consulted the latter, their action might result in closing the open door in Manchuria. The paper thinks it well to put this warning on record in view of the failure of the Japanese Government to take action before the conclusion of the Four-Power loan.
I asked the American Ambassador a few days ago what was his impression of the way in which the news of the conclusion of the loan had been received in Tokyo. His Excellency thought that there was no doubt that people here did not like it. In view of the large commercial and political interests Japan has in China, it must seem strange both to the Japanese and Chinese that the former had not been admitted to participate in an operation of such considerable importance and magnitude. He thought that the Japanese Government were in a difficult position in this matter, and he wondered whether, in some way or other, the Japanese might not try to block the practical application of the loan by stirring up provincial agitation against its terms. I said that if they did this they would only lend colour to the ever-recurring suspicion that they had designs on Chinese territory.
Mr. O'Brien said that he had not mentioned the question to Marquis Komura.
I have, &c.
HORACE RUMBOLD,
Enclosure in No. 1.
Précis of Leading Article in the “Jiji Shimpo" of May 7, 1911.
JAPANESE RIGHTS AND INTERESTS IN MANCHURIA.
THE failure of our Government to take any action before the conclusion of the Four-Power loan contract was, as is universally recognised, diplomatically a grave error of policy on the part of the authorities, who would seem to have not a word to offer in their defence. In view of the probability that the various Manchurian enterprises to be taken up have already been more or less determined, the moment is assuredly not far distant when operations will be opened, and the opportunity is a good one to say a word upon Japan's position in South Manchuria for the consideration of the Chinese Government and the capitalists of the four Powers,
Our various
The relations between South Manchuria and Japan, politically and economically, are not insignificant. Their origin dates back twenty years, but practically they assumed a concrete form from the period of the Russo-Japanese war. rights and interests connected with our lease of Port Arthur and Dalny, the South Manchurian Railway and adjacent zone, our investments in the Kilin-Changchun Railway, &c., and the working of coal mines at Yentai and elsewhere were acquired as a fair recompense for the sacrifice of myriads of lives and millions of treasure, as a barrier for the defence of Corean soil already at that date approximating to Japanese territory, and as a means for the exploitation in China's interest of her
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