Directory_and_Chronicle_1916 — Page 147

EXCHANGE OF NOTES BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM

AND RUSSIA WITH REGARD TO THEIR RESPECTIVE

RAILWAY INTERESTS IN CHINA

No. 1

Sir C. Scott to Count Mouravief

The Undersigned, British Ambassador, duly authorized to that effect, has the honour to make the following declaration to his Excellency Count Mouravieff, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs:-

Great Britain and Russia, animated by a sincere desire to avoid in China all cause of conflict on questions where their interests meet, and taking into considera- tion the economic and geographical gravitation of certain parts of that Empire, have agreed as follows:-

1. Great Britain engages not to seek for her own account, or on behalf of British subjects or of others, any railway concessions to the north of the Great Wall of China, and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway concessions in that region supported by the Russian Government.

2.-Russia, on her part, engages not to seek for her own account, or on behalf of Russian subjects or of others, any railway concessions in the basin of the Yang- tze, and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway concessions in that region supported by the British Government.

The two Contracting Parties, having nowise in view to infringe in any way the sovereign rights of China or existing Treaties, will not fail to communicate to the Chinese Governnient the present arrangement, which, by averting all cause of com. plications between them, is of a nature to consolidate peace in the Far East, and to serve the primordial interests of China herself.

(Signed) CHARLES S. SCOTT.

St. Petersburg, April 28, 1899.

The Undersigned, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, duly authorized to that effect, has the honour to make the following declaration to his Excellency Sir Charles Scott, British Ambassador:-

Russia and Great Britain, animated by the sincere desire to avoid in China all cause of conflict on questions where their interests meet, and taking into considera- tion the economic and geographical gravitation of certain parts of that Empire, have agreed as follows-

1.-Russia engages not to seek for her own account, or on behalf of Russian subjects or of others, any railway concessions in the basin of the Yangtze, and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway concessions in that region supported by the British Government.