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find herself suddenly involved in a war, China consents to allow Russia temporarily to concentrate her land and naval forces within the said ports in order the better to enable Russia to attack the enemy or to guard her own position.

"11.-If, however, there be no dangers of military operations in which Russia is engaged China shall have entire control over the administration of the said ports of Lushunk'ou and Talienwan, nor shall Russia interfere in any way therein. But as regards the building of the railways in the Three Eastern Provinces and the exploitation and opening of the mines therein, they shall be permitted to be proceeded with immediately after the ratification of this Convention and at the pleasure of the people concerned therein. With reference to the civil and military officers of Russia and Russian merchants and traders traveling [in any part of the territories herein mentioned], wherever they shall go, they shall be given all the privileges of protection and facilities within the power of the local authorities, nor shall these officials be allowed to put obstructions in the way or delay the journeys of the Russian officers and subjects herein mentioned.

"12. After this Convention shall have received the respective signatures of their Imperial Majesties [the Emperors of China and Russia], the articles included therein shall go into immediate force, and, with the exception of the clauses regarding Port Arthur, Talienwan, and Kiaochou, shall be notified to the various local authorities of the two Empires. As to the place for the exchange of ratifications, it shall be left to be decided at some future time, but the exchange shall take place within the space of six months.

"It has, furthermore, been agreed upon between the respective Plenipotentiaries of the High Contracting Powers to make this Convention out in three languages, namely, Chinese, Russian and French; one copy of each language to be held by the respective High Contracting Parties, after the signing and sealing thereof. And it has, furthermore, been shown, upon comparison, that the contents of the documents as given in the three languages aforesaid tally with each other in all respects; but in case of dispute in the future the wording of the French copy shall be deemed the correct version.

"This document speaks for itself, and gives Russia all she can want at present. It gives her the right to carry her Trans-Siberian Railway to Kirin in two directions, from some station in Siberia to the west of Kirin, and from Vladivostock. It provides that China may apply to Russia to build a continuation from Kirin to Shanhaikuan and Port Arthur, and it gives Russia the right to protect these lines when built with her own troops. All these lines are to be built to the Russian gauge. China gives Russians the right to work mines in Manchuria, and provides for the employment of Russian officers to drill the Manchurian levies. It gives Russia (on lease) the port of Kiaochou, and on emergency the use of Port Arthur and Talienwan, which are not to be ceded to any other Power; and it promises every facility to Russian merchants and travellers and Russian trade. All the most important points in the secret treaty which we gave to the world in March last are embodied in this, and time will show whether this is the full extent of China's gratitude to Russia."

For a criticism of this document, see CORDIER'S Histoire des relations de la Chine avec les puissances occidentales, 1860-1902, vol. 2, p. 343.

In an article entitled "Manchuria-A Chinese View of the Situation," by "An Admirer of Li Hung Chang," which was published in the London Daily Telegraph of February 15, 1910, it was stated that while attending the coronation ceremonies of Emperor Nicholas at Moscow, in May. 1896, Li Hung Chang concluded with the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs (Prince Lobanoff-Rostovsky) a secret treaty of alliance, the French text of which was given together with the following English translation:

Treaty of Alliance between China and Russia.-May, 1896

"ARTICLE I.—Every aggression directed by Japan, whether against Russian territory in Eastern Asia, or against the territory of China or that of Korea, shall be regarded as necessarily bringing about the immediate application of the present treaty.

"In this case the two High Contracting Parties engage to support each other reciprocally by all the land and sea forces of which they can dispose at that moment,

and to assist each other as much as possible for the victualling of their respective forces.

"ARTICLE II.-As soon as the two High Contracting Parties shall be engaged in common action no treaty of peace with the adverse party can be concluded by one of them without the assent of the other.

“ARTICLE III.—During the military operations all the ports of China shall, in case of necessity, be open to Russian warships, which shall find there on the part of the Chinese authorities all the assistance of which they may stand in need.

"ARTICLE IV.-In order to facilitate the access of the Russian land troops to the menaced points, and to insure their means of subsistence, the Chinese Government consents to the construction of a railway line across the Chinese provinces of the Amour [i. e., the Heilungkiang] and of Guirin (Kirin) in the direction of Vladivostok. The junction of this railway with the Russian railway shall not serve as a pretext for any encroachment on Chinese territory nor for any infringement of the rights of sovereignty of his Majesty the Emperor of China. The construction and exploitation of this railway shall be accorded to the Russo-Chinese Bank, and the clauses of the Contract which shall be concluded for this purpose shall be duly discussed between the Chinese Minister in St. Petersburg and the Russo-Chinese Bank.

“ARTICLE V.—It is understood that in time of war, as indicated in Article I, Russia shall have the free use of the railway mentioned in Article IV, for the transport and provisioning of her troops. In time of peace Russia shall have the same right for the transit of her troops and stores, with stoppages, which shall not be justified by any other motive than the needs of the transport service.

"ARTICLE VI.—The present treaty shall come into force on the day when the contract stipulated in Article IV, shall have been confirmed by his Majesty the Emperor of China. It shall have from then force and value for a period of fifteen years. Six months before the expiration of this term the two High Contracting Parties shall deliberate concerning the prolongation of this treaty."

The substantial accuracy of the disclosure thus made would appear to be adequately confirmed by the following extract translated from Ma mission en Chine: 18931897 (Paris, Plon-Nourrit, 1918), by M. A. GÉRARD, who during the period indicated was French Minister to China:

"Although the treaty was intended to remain secret, I one day had in my hands for a few minutes, during a visit which I made in the spring of 1897 to Li Hung Chang at his residence in Peking, the copy of the document which he had signed the previous year with Prince Lobanoff. The English translation of this text was published fifteen years later, when the treaty itself had expired, in the London Daily Telegraph, by the son of Li Hung Chang, Li Ching Mai, who was then Chinese Minister at the Court of St. James, and who sought to defend his father's memory against unjust attacks. The treaty was in fact a treaty of alliance, concluded for a period of fifteen years, by which the Chinese Government obligated itself, in the event of an aggression by Japan, to place at the disposal of the Russian Government its ports and all means of defence. The principal clause of the treaty was the assent given by the Chinese Government to the construction and operation, in the Manchurian provinces of Amur (Heilungkiang) and Kirin, of a line of railway connecting with the Russian Siberian lines, the concession for which was made to the RussoChinese Bank by a contract to be signed between the Chinese Minister at St. Petersburg and the delegate of the Bank (Article IV). It was stipulated in Article VI that the treaty should come into force on the day on which the contract for the construction and operation of the railway should have been approved and ratified by the Emperor of China.

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"The English newspapers at Shanghai had published, long before it was signed, the alleged text of the treaty and of the contract. They published another so-called version in the month of October, 1896, some days after the ratification at Peking of the contract in regard to the railway. These various texts, to which the English press gave the name of the 'Cassini Convention,' were apocryphal. They confused the treaty of alliance, properly so called, with the railway contract. .. The true facts as here outlined establish that there never was, properly speaking, any 'Cassini Convention'; that the treaty of alliance was concluded at St. Petersburg in the month of May, 1896, between Li Hung Chang and Prince Lobanoff; that the railway contract was signed on September 8th following, also at St. Petersburg, by the Chinese Minister, Shu Ching Cheng, and the delegates of

the Russo-Asiatic Bank; and that it was this contract for whose definite ratification at Peking on September 30th Count Cassini waited before proceeding on his way to Russia."

In the summer of 1918, the military situation which had developed in Siberia led to a suggestion by the American Government for the unified control of the Siberian railway system (including the Chinese Eastern Railway), under the direction of Mr. John F. Stevens and the Russian Railway Corps associated with him, which the Government of the United States had placed at the disposal of the Russian Government during the Kerensky régime, and which had been entrusted by that administration with the reorganization of traffic between European Russia and Vladivostok. The overthrow of the Kerensky Government had interrupted the work of Mr. Stevens and his associates; the Bolsheviks, in co-operation with liberated German and Austrian prisoners of war, had taken possession of the Trans-Baikal, Amur and Ussuri sections of the Siberian system, and inhibited all traffic thereon save in their own interests; the liberated Czecho-Slovak prisoners had been prevented from passing eastwards over the line in order to join the forces of the Allies in Europe; to assist them and to protect the military stores accumulated at Vladivostok, the American, British, Chinese, French, Italian and Japanese Governments had despatched expeditionary forces to occupy Vladivostok and take possession of the several branches of the Ussuri Railway; the Japanese and Chinese Governments, in pursuance of the military agreement of March 25, 1918 (MACMURRAY, vol. II, p. 1407), had taken possession of the Chinese Eastern Railway, and, after the opening of the main Trans-Siberian line by the Czecho-Slovak forces, of the Trans-Baikal Railway as far west as Chita. The railway service had become so disorganized as to be incapable of satisfying the economic needs of Siberia, or even the military requirements of the Allied forces. Under these circumstances, the American Government offered the suggestion that, for the purpose of more efficient technical management, and without prejudice to any claims of financial or political interest, the Siberian railway system (including therein the Chinese Eastern Railway) should during the existing emergency be entrusted to a Commission directed by Mr. Stevens. The other interested Governments having indicated their willingness to accept any arrangement to that end which might be agreed upon between the American and Japanese Governments, negotiations ensued between the American Ambassador at Tokyo and the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs, which on January 9, 1919, resulted in an informal agreement as subsequently (March 17, 1919) announced by the Japanese Foreign Office, to the following effect:

Agreement regarding Inter-Allied Supervision of Siberian Railway System.January 9, 1919

"Plan for the supervision of the Chinese Eastern and the Trans-Siberian Railways in the zone in which the Allied military Forces are now operating.

"1. The general supervision of the railways in the zone in which the Allied Forces are now operating shall be exercised by a special Inter-Allied Committee, which shall consist of representatives from each Allied Power having military forces in Siberia, including Russia, and the Chairman of which shall be a Russian. "The following boards shall be created, to be placed under the control of the Inter-Allied Committee:

"(a) A Technical Board consisting of railway experts of the nations having military forces in Siberia, for the purpose of administering technical and economic management of all railways in the said zone.

"(b) An Allied Military Transportation Board, for the purpose of coordinating military transportation under instructions of the proper military authorities.

"2. The protection of the railways shall be placed under the Allied military forces. At the head of each railway shall remain a Russian manager or director with the powers conferred by existing Russian law.

"3.-The Technical Board shall elect a President to whom shall be intrusted the technical operation of the Railways. In matters of such technical operation, the President may issue instructions to the Russian officials mentioned in the

preceding clause. He may appoint assistants and inspectors in the service of the Board, chosen from among the nationals of the Powers having military forces in Siberia, to be attached to the central office of the Board, and define their duties. He may assign, if necessary, the corps of railway experts to the more important stations. In assigning railway experts to any of the stations, interests of the respective Allied Powers in charge of military protection of such stations shall be taken into due consideration. He shall distribute the work among the clerical staff of the Board whom he may appoint in his discretion.

"4.-The clerical staff of the Inter-Allied Committee shall be appointed by the Chairman of the Committee who shall have the right of distributing the work among such employees, as well as of dismissing them.

"5. The present arrangement shall cease to be operative upon withdrawal of the foreign military forces from Siberia, and all the foreign railway experts appointed under this arrangement shall then be recalled forthwith."

Simultaneously and in furtherance of this Plan the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs approved and adopted the following Memorandum in reference thereto :

"Memorandum

"American Embassy, Tokyo.

"As the result of informal conversations with Viscount Uchida it is understood"First: That Viscount Uchida will forward the amended plan to Viscount Ishii, with instructions to present it to the Department of State and to explain that it is submited with the understanding that Mr. Stevens be named as President.

"Second: That the Inter-Allied Committee shall be composed of one representative of each of the following Governments: China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United States, leaving question of Czecho-Slovaks to be discussed.

"Third: That each of the above named Governments shall select one technical railway expert for membership on the Technical Board.

"Fourth: That Mr. Stevens' selection as President shall not prevent his selection as a member of the Technical Board.

"Fifth: That the Government of Japan and the United States shall at once advise the above named Associated Governments of agreed plan, including the understanding in reference to the selection of Mr. Stevens and request their adherence and cordial cooperation.

"Sixth: That this plan shall be interpreted as a sincere effort temporarily to operate the Chinese Eastern and Trans-Siberian Railways in the interest of the Russian people, with a view to their ultimate return to those in interest, without the impairing of any existing rights; That in intrusting to Mr. Stevens, as President, the Technical operation of these railways it is understood the Government of Japan and the United States are both prepared to give him the authority and support which will be necessary to make his efforts effective.

"Tokyo, January 9, 1919."

The plan, as construed by the memorandum of January 9th, having thereafter been formally approved by the Government of the United States, under a reservation of financial responsibility, and on the explicit understanding that the word "interests" (as used in section 3 of the plan) should be construed as implying only military convenience as distinguished from any political or territorial rights or spheres of interest, was later submitted to the other Governments concerned, and accepted by them. The system of technical control thus contemplated was put into effect on March 10, 1919.

At a meeting of the commanders of the allied expeditionary forces in Siberia, held at Vladivostok during April, 1919, it was decided to allocate as follows the military protection of the several sections of the Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railway systems:

United States:

Ussuri Railway, from Vladivostok (inclusive) to Nikolsk (exclusive);
branch to Suchan Mines; and section from Spasskoe to Ussuri;
Trans-Baikal Railway, from Verkhneudinsk (inclusive) to
Baikal City

(inclusive); and

At Harbin, garrison of 1,000 men.

China:

Chinese Eastern Railway, from Nikolsk (inclusive) to Manchuli (exclusive), and from Harbin to Changchun (inclusive); and

Ussuri to Guberovo.

Japan:

Note 3

Ussuri Railway, from Nikolsk to Spasskoe, and from Guberovo to Habarovsk;
Amur Railway, entire; and

Trans-Baikal Railway, from Manchuli (inclusive) to Verkhneudinsk (exclu-
sive).

The statutes or charter of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company are given as follows (in abridged translation) in ROCKHILL, p. 215 (citing B. & F. State Papers, vol. 88, p. 773, and Official Gazette, No. 137, December 11/23, 1896):

Statutes of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company

"ST. PETERSBURG, DECEMBER 4/16, 1896

[Translation]

"The Minister of Finances presented on the 8/20th December, 1896, to the Ruling Senate for publication a copy of the Statutes of the Chinese Eastern Railway Company, which were Imperially confirmed on the 4/16th December, 1896.

STATUTES OF THE CHINESE EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY

"Formation of the Company.-§ 1. On the strength of the Agreement concluded on the 27th August/8th September, 1896, by the Imperial Chinese Government with the Russo-Chinese Bank, a Company is formed under the name of the "Eastern Chinese Railway Company" for the construction and working of a railway within the confines of China from one of the points on the western borders of the Provinces of Hei-Lun-Tsian, to one of the points on the castern borders of the Province of Ghirin and for the connection of this railway with those branches which the Imperial Russian Government will construct to the Chinese frontier from Trans-Baikalia and the southern Ussuri lines. [Observation. The Company is empowered, subject to the sanction of the Chinese Government, to exploit, in connection with the railway or independently of it, coal mines, as also to exploit in China other enterprises-mining, industrial, and commercial. For the working of these enterprises which may be independent of the railway, the Company shall keep accounts separate from those of the railway.]

"The formation of the Company shall be undertaken by the Russo-Chinese Bank. "With the formation of the Company all rights and obligations are transferred to it in regard to the construction and working of the line ceded in virtue of the abovenamed Agreement of the 27th August/8th September, 1896.

"The Company shall be recognized as formed on the presentation to the Minister of Finances of a warrant of the State Bank certifying the payment of the first instalment on the shares. In any case such payment must be made not later than two months from the day of confirmation of the present Statutes.

"The succeeding instalments on the shares shall be paid in such orders of gradation that the shares shall be fully paid up at their nominal value not later than one year from the day of formation of the Company.

"Owners of shares of the Company may cnly be Russian and Chinese subjects. "Term of Concession.-§2. In virtue of the Agreement with the Chinese Government, the Company shall retain possession of Chinese Eastern Railway during the course of eighty years from the day of the opening of traffic along the whole line. "Obligation towards the Russian Government.-§ 3. In recognition that the enterprise of the Chinese Eastern Railway will be realized only owing to the guarantee given by the Russian Government in regard to the revenue of the line for covering working expenses as well as for effecting the obligatory payments on the bonds (§§ 11.

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