This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL,
(25409)
No. 1.
315
[July 20.]
SECTION 1.
!
Sir Edward Grey to Sir C. MacDonald.
(No. 177.) Extract.)
Foreign Office, July 20, 1908.
THE Japanese Ambassador told me on the 15th instant that he was leaving for Tokio on the 27th, having been summoned home in order to take up the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I said we were very sorry to lose him as Ambassador. It would be some compensation to us that there would still be as Foreign Minister in Japan some one whom we knew personally, but nevertheless I was very sorry he was leaving us.
He told me he was glad that as Foreign Minister he would still be in touch with us. He intended to do all in his power to strengthen the good relations existing between our two countries, and to make it clear that those good relations were to continue.
The Ambassador assured me that the Japanese people had no intention or desire to work against British trade. But of course they expected to be admitted now as competitors.
I said I understood him to mean that he feared British traders would be displeased to find in Japan a new competitor.
He answered that in former days British trade had had no competitor at all; later on, France and Germany had become competitors; and lastly, Japan. He did not think it would be fair that all the dislike of competition should be concentrated on Japan.
I told him I quite agreed that open competition gave no cause for grievance. I had carefully avoided taking up any question on that account. But it was all the more important that I should be able to satisfy our trading community that they had no legitimate grievance due to what might be described as unfair competition. It was for this reason that I had laid so much stress on equal treatment between Dalny and Newchwang and on equal rates on the South Manchurian Railway. It was also my reason for deprecating the interpretation of railway rights in such a sense as to place large tracts of territory surrounding the railway lines under Japanese jurisdiction and in Japanese possession. Land near the railway was naturally of great importance to traders, and it would be a real grievance if it were closed to all but members of one nationality.
[1841 u-1]
$
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
CHINA RAILWAYS.
CONFIDENTIAL,
(25409]
No. 1.
315
[July 20.]
SECTION 1.
!
Sir Edward Grey to Sir C. MacDonald.
(No. 177.) Extract.)
Foreign Office, July 20, 1908. THE Japanese Ambassador told me on the 15th instant that he was leaving for Tokio on the 27th, having been summoned home in order to take up the post of Minister for Foreign Affairs.
I said we were very sorry to lose him as Ambassador. It would be some compensation to us that there would still be as Foreign Minister in Japan some one whoin we knew personally, but nevertheless I was very sorry he was leaving us.
He told me he was glad that as Foreign Minister he would still be in touch with us. He intended to do all in his power to strengthen the good relations existing between our two countries, and to make it clear that those good relations were to continue.
The Ambassador assured me that the Japanese people had no intention or desire to work against British trade. But of course they expected to be admitted now as competitors.
I said I understood him to mean that he feared British traders would be displeased to find in Japan a new competitor.
He answered that in former days British trade had had no competitor at all; later on, France and Germany had become competitors; and lastly, Japan. He did not think it would be fair that all the dislike of competition should be concentrated on Japan.
I told him I quite agreed that open competition gave no cause for grievance. I had carefully avoided taking up any question on that account. But it was all the more important that I should be able to satisfy our trading community that they had no legitimate grievance due to what might be described as unfair competition. It was for this reason that I had laid so much stress on equal treatment between Dalny and Newchwang and on equal rates on the South Manchurian Railway. It was also my reason for deprecating the interpretation of railway rights in such a sense as to place large tracts of territory surrounding the railway lines under Japanese jurisdiction and in Japanese possession. Land near the railway was naturally of great importance to traders, and it would be a real grievance if it were closed to all but members of one nationality.
[1841 u-1]
$
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.