CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 235

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and Wattie, have shares in oil and coal concessions in the northern half of Saghalien.

To what extent, if any, Russia would be prepared to welcome the introduction of Japanese capital into her sphere in Manchuria it is difficult even to conjecture, but that an improvement in the relations between the authorities of the two countries has taken place is shown by the fact of a working agreement which has been concluded for the conveyance of goods and passengers over the Chinese Eastern and South Manchurian lines, and by a parcel post arrangement, one effect of which is that parcels by the Siberian route for delivery to Japanese post offices in Manchuria are not charged customs duties at Virballen, on the Russian side of the Russo-German frontier-duties which exceed at times the value of the articles taxed. Copy of this arrangement is, I am confidentially informed, in the possession of the Inspectorate- General of Customs at Peking.

In Chientao, according to a reliable informant, Japanese consular representatives have been sent to each of the four open ports-a vice-consul to Chu Tzu Chieh (Yen Chi Kang), Tou Tao Kou, and Pai Tsao Kou, and a consul-general to Lung Ching Tsun (Liu Tao Kou). At Hunchun there is a Japanese "chi ch'a kuan," who is, I understand, a kind of police inspector.

0

I have, &c.

H. E. SLY.

7

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

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[20103]

No. 1.

[June 614

SECTION 2.

Rear 23 JUN 10

Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received June 6.) (No. 153. Confidential.) Sir,

IN my despatch No. 77 of the 11th March, I informed you of the formation at

Peking, May 16, 1910. Harbin of a Russo-Chinese Commission to consider the Provisional Trade Regulations for the navigation of the Sungari River.

Since then I have received several despatches on the subject from His Majesty's consul at Harbin, but they all indicated that in spite of a conciliatory attitude on the part of the Russian delegates, no real progress was being made towards a definite agreement or even towards a compromise which would tide over the present scason and permit of a modus vivendi satisfactory to both parties pending the revision of the 1858 aud 1881 treaties next year. It appears that the Russian Minister, acting on instructions from St. Petersburgh, finally took the question up with the Wai-wu Pu. M. Korostovetz was good enough to inform me that, though he had at first thought that it would be more expeditious to transfer the negotiations to Peking at once, he had subsequently agreed that the sittings of the commission at Harbin should continue, but he had warned the Wai-wu Pu that unless regulations for the navigation of the Sungari satisfactory to Russia as well as to China as provided for in article 18 of the Russo-Chinese Treaty of 1881 were adopted before the 1st July, the Russian Government would demand repayment of all duties paid under protest by Russian subjects since the enforcement of last year's provisional regulations, and would instruct their nationals in future to pay the duties not to the Maritime Customs, but to the Russo-Chinese Bank.

M. Korostovetz tells me that the real point at issue between himself and the Chinese Government is still the privileged position of Russia in regard to the navigation of the Amur, Sungari, and Ussuri Rivers under the treaties of 1858 and 1881, the Chinese Government maintaining that this was surrendered under article 3 of the Treaty of Portsmouth, while M. Korostovetz points out that these two treaties are specifically mentioned in notes exchanged between the Russian and Japanese Governments communicating lists of the treaties which each party considered as being in force between itself and the Chinese Gozernment. Moreover, M. Korostovetz states that Prince Ching has himself admitted these treaties as a whole to be still binding, and that the present attempt of the Chinese Government is merely part of a general plan on their part to whittle away as far as possible all Russian privileges before the time comes next year for opening negotiations for a revision of the treaties. M. Korostovetz appeared very despondent as to the prospects of the Harbin Commission arriving at any conclusion before the 1st July, and in general very discouraged at the want of success attending the efforts of Russian diplomacy in China.

He repeated to me what he said on the 29th April (see my despatch No. 131 of the 30th April) as to the uselessness of trying to conciliate the Chinese, and deplored the fact that his Government were no longer in a position to bring pressure to bear on the Chinese Government. He had found the Wai-wu Pu absolutely unyielding in regard to this question of the Sungari navigation, and also in regard to another question which had given his legation great trouble for some months past, and was of vital importance to the numerons Russian flour mills in Harbin and other places in North Manchuria, viz., the right of the Chinese authorities to prohibit the export of wheat. He added that the only point which he had been able to extract from the Chinese Government by months of negotiation was their consent to the appointment of officers for the delimitation of certain portions of the frontier between the Russian possessions and Mongolia, where encroachments had been made on the never very clearly defined boundaries of the treaties of 1689 and 1727.

I have, &c.

W. G. MAX MÜLLER.

[2788 ƒ-2]