CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 424

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.j

AFFAIRS OF CHINA,

CONFIDENTIAL.

[25788]

No. 1.

Cage II SEP 09

422

[July 8.}

SECTION 2.

Mr. Rumbold to Sir Edward Grey-(Received July 8.)

(No. 36.)

(Telegraphic.) P.

SINO-JAPANESE Manchurian negotiations. Peking telegram No. 116 of the 6th July.

Tokyo, July 8, 1909.

I was informed by Count Komura to-day that Chinese Minister here had made no communication to Japanese Government beyond a note on question of Chientao jurisdiction. In reply to a suggestion by me that the instructions to Chinese Minister were still on their way, Count Komura stated that, if negotiations were transferred to Tokyo, it would, anyhow, first be necessary to obtain consent of Japanese Government to such a step. Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs had told me that a transfer of negotiations to Tokyo would be welcomed here, but Count Komura gave me to under- stand that it was doubtful if the Japanese Government would consent to such a course. The statement of the Wai-wu Pu was, in the opinion of Count Komura, merely a device by which responsibility might be shifted elsewhere.

With the exception of Antung-Mukden railway question, his Excellency added, Japan had nothing to lose, should the questions in dispute be allowed to drag on. But should the Chinese Government within a reasonable time not give a satisfactory reply to the Japanese representative at Peking on the Antung-Mukden railway question, the Japanese Government would reconstruct that line and afterwards discuss the matter.

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