of February, a copy of the text of which is respectfully attached hereto." In order that the Count Lamsdorff's note may be brought as fully as possible before you, I inclose herewith copies of the original Russian text" of the French translation of it," which accompanied it from the Imperial ministry for foreign affairs, and of an English translation made at this embassy. I have, etc., CHARLEMAGNE TOWER. No. 96.] [Inclosure.-Translation.] Count Lamsdorff to Mr. Tower. MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, First Department, January 27 ( February 9), 1902. MR. AMBASSADOR: The Imperial Government, always desirous of cultivating and developing the best relations with the United States of America, is fully disposed to remove the anxiety which the proposed arrangements between Russia and China appear to have caused the Cabinet at Washington, but it feels itself bound at the same time to declare that negotiations carried on between two entirely independent States are not subjects to be submitted to the approval of other powers. There is no thought of attacking the principle of the "open door" as that principle is understood by the Imperial Government of Russia, and Russia has no intention whatever to change the policy followed by her in that respect up to the present time. If the Russo-Chinese Bank should obtain concessions in China, the agreements of a private character relating to them would not differ from those heretofore concluded by so many other foreign corporations. But would it not be very strange if the "door" that is "open" to certain nations should be closed to Russia, whose frontier adjoins that of Manchuria and who has been forced by recent events to send her troops into that province to reestablish order in the plain and common interest of all nations? It is true that Russia has conquered Manchuria, but she still maintains her firm determination to restore it to China and recall her troops as soon as the conditions of evacuation shall have been agreed upon and the necessary steps taken to prevent a fresh outbreak of troubles in the neighboring territory. It is impossible to deny to an independent State the right to grant to others such concessions as it is free to dispose of, and I have every reason to believe that the demands of the Russo-Chinese Bank do not in the least exceed those that have been so often formulated by other foreign companies, and I feel that under the circumstances it would not be easy for the Imperial Government to deny to Russian companies that support which is given by other governments to companies and syndicates of their own nationalities. At all events, I beg your excellency to believe that there is not, nor can there be, any question of the contradiction of the assurances which, under the orders of His Majesty the Emperor, I have had occasion to give heretofore in regard to the principles which invariably direct the policy of Russia. Please accept, etc., COUNT LAMSDORFF. DECLARATION OF RUSSIA AND FRANCE CONCERNING DEFENSIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN. › Mr. Hay to Mr. Tower. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, (Mr. Hay states that Mr. Tower may say to Count Lamsdorff that the negotiations between Great Britain and Japan, which resulted in a Not printed. See also under Great Britain, page 513. the treaty of January 30, 1902, were absolutely unknown to the Government of the United States until the day of the publication of the treaty; and that neither the British nor the Japanese Government was consulted in regard to the Department of State's memorandum of February 1, 1902, in regard to negotiations between the Russian and Chinese Governments respecting Manchuria; that the fact of the proximity of the dates of the treaty and memorandum referred to was purely accidental.) Mr. Tower to Mr. Hay. [Telegram.-Paraphrase.] EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, (Mr. Tower acknowledges the receipt of the Department's telegraphic instruction of March 1, which has been communicated to the Russian minister for foreign affairs.) No. 541.] Mr. Tower to Mr. Hay. EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of March 1. I communicated the contents of this dispatch to the Count Lamsdorff, Imperial Russian minister for foreign affairs, as instructed by you to do, in a note dated the 3d of March, which I handed to him at a personal interview on that day. A copy of that note is respectfully inclosed herewith. I have, etc., CHARLEMAGNE TOWER. [Inclosure.] Mr. Tower to Count Lamsdorff. EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, Mr. MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: I have the honor to inform your excellency that I have been instructed by a telegram from the honorable Secretary of State of the United States of America to communicate to you the fact that the negotiations carried on between Great Britain and Japan, which have terminated in the treaty recently entered into by those two powers, were absolutely unknown to the Government of the United States until the day when the terms of that treaty were made public. I am also to say to your excellency that neither the Government of Great Britain nor that of Japan was consulted by the United States Government in regard to the memorandum of the 1st of February, 1902, upon the subject of the Russo-Chinese Bank. The proximity of date between that memorandum and the British-Japanese treaty was entirely accidental. I avail, etc., CHARLEMAGNE TOWER. Memorandum handed to the Secretary of State March 19, 1902. [Translation.] IMPERIAL EMBASSY OF RUSSIA IN WASHINGTON. The allied Governments of Russia and France having received communication of the Anglo-Japanese convention of January 30, 1902, concluded for the object of assuring status quo and general peace in the Far East as well as of maintaining the independence of China and Korea, which countries must remain open to the commerce of all nations, have found therein, with full satisfaction, the affirmation of the essential principles that they themselves have repeatedly declared to be and remain the foundation of their policy. The two Govern ments consider the observance of those principles to be at the same time a guaranty for their special interests in the Far East. Being, however, under the necessity of taking into account, for their own part, the contingency of either the aggressive action of third powers or renewed disturbances in China, by which the integrity and free development of that power would be put in doubt, becoming a menace, for their own interests the two allied Governments reserve to themselves the right eventually to devise suitable means to insure their protection. ST. PETERSBURG, March 3 (16), 1902. Memorandum. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 22, 1902. The Government of the United States has pleasure in taking note of the declaration of the allied Governments of Russia and France that, having received communication of the Anglo-Japanese convention of January 30, 1902, which was concluded for the purpose of assuring the status quo and general peace in the Far East as well as maintaining the independence of China and Korea, which countries should remain open to the commerce and industry of all nations, they have found full satisfaction in seeing therein the affirmation of the essential principles which they have themselves on repeated occasions declared to form and continue to be the bases of their policy. The Government of the United States is gratified to see in this declaration of the allied Governments of Russia and France, as in the Anglo-Japanese convention, renewed confirmation of the assurances it has heretofore received from each of them regarding their concurrence with the views which this Government has from the outset announced and advocated in respect to the conservation of the independence and integrity of the Chinese Empire as well as of Korea, and the maintenance of complete liberty of intercourse between those countries and all nations in matters of trade and industry. With regard to the concluding paragraph of the Russian memorandum the Government of the United States, while sharing the views therein expressed as to the continuance of the "open-door" policy against possible encroachment from whatever quarter, and while equally solicitous for the unfettered development of independent China, reserves for itself entire liberty of action should circumstances unexpectedly arise whereby the policy and interests of the United States in China and Korea might be disturbed or impaired. No. 552.] Mr. Tower to Mr. Hay. EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to inclose to you herewith, for your informa tion, a copy of the declaration of the 3d (16th) of March, made by Russia and France in regard to the maintenance of the status quo in the Far East, as the same was published in the official part of the Journal de St. Pétersbourg on Thursday, the 7th (20th) of March, 1902. Although this declaration was officially communicated to the Government of the United States by the representatives in Washington of the signatory powers, its publication here was accompanied by a memorandum issued in regard to it by the imperial Russian minister for foreign affairs, which may not have accompanied the official communication of the declaration itself. I forward this copy of it to you, therefore, because of its value in interpreting the purposes of the declaration and also for the particularly interesting confirmation which it contains of the statements of policy heretofore made by Russia in regard to the open door in China. This statement is that: The principles which have guided the policy of Russia since the outbreak of the disorders in China have always been and still are unchanged. Russia insists upon the independence and the integrity of China, a neighboring and friendly country, as well as upon those of Korea. Russia desires the maintenance of the status quo and of the general peace in the Far East. By the construction of the Great Siberian Railway, with its branch line through Manchuria to a harbor always free from ice, Russia favors the extension within those regions of the commerce and industry of the whole world. I have, etc., [Inclosure.] CHARLEMAGNE TOWER. From the Journal de St. Petersburg of Thursday, March 7 (20), 1902–Official. ST. PETERSBURG, March 6, 1902. The convention concluded in January last between England and Japan has given rise to the most contradictory interpretations and to the most varied suppositions, principally by reason of the fact that by that instrument two of the eleven powers which had quite recently signed the Pekin protocol, after bringing their collective action in China to an end, seemed to separate themselves from the other cabinets and to place themselves in a special situation in respect to the Celestial Empire, in which, thanks to the efforts of them all, the traditional order of things had been reestablished and the legitimate central authority had been restored. The Imperial Government, having duly considered the friendly communications sent to Russia by the Japanese and British Governments on this subject, viewed the conclusion of the said arrangement with the utmost calmness. The principles which have guided the policy of Russia since the beginning of the disorders in China have remained, and still remain, unchanged. Russia insists upon the independence and integrity of China, a friendly and neighboring country, as it does upon those of Korea. Russia desires the maintenance of the status quo and of general peace in the Far East. By the construction of the Great Siberian Railway, with a branch line running through Manchuria to a port which is at all times free from ice, Russia favors the extension of the commerce and industry of the entire world in those regions. Would it be to her interest to place obstacles in their way now? The intention expressed by England and Japan to contribute to the attainment of the objects which have invariably been had in view by the Russian Government can not fail to meet with the sympathy of Russia in spite of the comments which have a Printed, ante, page 931. emanated from certain political spheres and from sundry organs of the foreign press, which have endeavored to present the impassible attitude of the Imperial Government in a quite different light as regards a diplomatic instrument which, in its eyes, in no wise changes the general situation of the political horizon. Now, in view of the ever-persistent agitation concerning the Anglo-Japanese arrangement, the allied Governments of Russia and France have deemed it necessary distinctly to formulate their views on this subject in an identical declaration addressed to the powers whose representatives, conjointly with the plenipotentiaries of Russia and France, signed the Pekin protocol of August 25 (September 7), 1901. No. 293.] Mr. Hay to Mr. Tower. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 552 of the 22d ultimo, transmitting a copy of the declaration of March 16, made by Russia and France relative to the maintenance of the status quo in the Far East, as it appeared in the official part of the Journal de St. Pétersbourg. I inclose for your information copy of the declaration," which I have received from the allied governments of France and Russia, through their embassies at Washington, relative to the maintenance of the status quo and general peace in the Far East, and a copy of the reply a of the Government of the United States. EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of May 24. I inclose herewith the reply of the Russian Government to my request made in accordance with your instructions. I have communicated the substance of this note to the consul-general in this city, instructing him to inform all the consular representatives under him. I have, etc., J. W. RIDDLE, Chargé d'Affaires ad Interim. [Inclosure.-Translation.] Prince Obolensky to Mr. Riddle. MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MR. CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES: In reply to your note of May 13 (26), I have the honor to inform you that the Imperial Government sees no objection to the interests of Cuba and its citizens being represented by consular officers of the United States residing in Russia, as requested by the President of the Republic of Cuba. Please receive, etc., a Printed, ante. OBOLENSKY. b Printed, page 6. |