Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 291

RUSSO-JAPANESE RAILWAY CONVENTION

PROTOCOL

237

At the moment of proceeding to the signature of the Provisionary Convention for the connection of the Japanese and Russian railways in Manchuria, the two high contracting parties, judging it useful to settle certain questions relative to the terminus of Kuanchengtze and to the coal-mines of Shibelin and Taokiatun, the ndersigned, Ichiro Motono, Docteur en Droit, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Japan, and le Maître de la Cour Imperial, Alexandre Iswolsky, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, have concluded the following:

Art. I.--It has been agreed between the two high contracting par ies that in principle the terminus of Kuanchengtze and its appendages are the common property of Japan and Russia, but that, for the sake of practical convenience, the exclusive ownership of the said terminus and of its appendages shall remain with Russia and that for it the Russian Government shall pay to the Japanese Government a sum of 560,393 roubles in virtue of compensation for the renunciation by Japan of her rights of co-ownership of the Kuanchengtze terininus and its appendages.

Art. II.-The Russian Government shall remit to the Japanese Government, with the briefest possible delay, after the signature of the Provisionary Convention of the railway connection, in their actual state, all the railways and all the objects belonging to these railways which are to the South of the point marked N. 2,223 in the plan here annexed, as well as the coal mines at Shibelin and Taokiatun with all their appendages. Immediately after the signing of the said Convention, the necess- ary instructions shall be sent by the two Governments of Japan and Russia, on the one part to the South Manchurian Railway Company, and on the other to the Chinese Eastern Railway, directing the transfer of the said railways and of the appendages of these railways as well as the aforementioned coal mine.

Art. III-It is agreed between the two high contracting parties that the Japanese Government shall subsequently choose a site where shall be constructed the Japanese terminus of Changchun, between the Russian terminus of Kuanchengtze and the town of Changchun.

In the event of the construction of the Kirin railway line, the Japanese Govern- ment shall exert itself to cause the constractiou by the railway company, outside the limits of the Changchun terminus, of crossings and viaducts to the points of the said line and the principal roads between the Russian station of Kuanchengtze and the town of Changchun.

Art. IV. The detailed regulations relative to the transfer of passengers and merchandise from one railway to the other shall be discussed and concluded between the railway companies interested, with the briefest possible delay, after the signing of the Provisional Convention relating to railway connection. The place and the date of the meeting of the Delegates appointed to make these arrangements shall be subsequently determined in the manner most agreeable to the parties.

Art. V.It is agreed between the two high contracting parties that the Con- vention signed this day shall be put in force immediately after the construction of the provisional Japanese station mentioned in Article III. of the Additional Articles of the said Convention shall have been completed.

In testimony whereof, the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Japan and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia have signed the present Protocol and affixed thereto their seals.

Done at St. Petersburg in duplicate, this 13th day of the 6th month of the 40th year of Meiji, corresponding to May 31 (June 13), 1907.

(Signed)

I. MOTONO.

ISWOLSKY.