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No. 25.

GREAT BRITAIN.

DECLARATION BY GREAT BRITAIN RESPECTING WEI-HAI WEI.a

APRIL 19, 1898.
[Translation.]

England formally declares to Germany that in establishing herself at Wei-hai Wei, she has no intention of injuring or contesting the rights and interests of Germany in the Province of Shan-tung, or of creating difficulties for her in that province. It is especially understood that England will not construct any railroad communication from Wei-hai Wei and the district leased therewith into the interior of the Province of Shan-tung.

a Reichs Anzeiger, April 22, 1898. See also British Parliamentary Blue Book, China, No. 1 (1889), pp. 27-31.

180

No. 26.

JAPAN.

DECLARATION CONCERNING THE NON-ALIENATION OF THE PROVINCE OF FU-KIEN.

APRIL 26, 1898.

MR. YANO TO THE PRINCES AND MINISTERS OF THE TSUNG-LI

YAMEN.

[Translation.]

PEKING, April 24, 1898.

The Minister of Japan, Mr. Yano, has the honor to make an official communication.

A telegram has just been received from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, which reads as follows:

"The Government of Japan has viewed with constant deep concern the difficulties with which the Government of China has recently been confronted. The declaration made at the time of the evacuation of Wei-Hai Wei is an evidence of this. It is to be apprehended that trouble may arise with consequences disastrous to China. In all this there is no mistaking what our real purpose is.

“In view of the present state of affairs, the Government of Japan, mindful of its own interests, cannot act as if entirely in ignorance of passing events, but must take proper measures to meet any situation that may arise. You will ask the Government of China to make a declaration that it will not cede or lease to any other Power any portion of its territory within the Province of Fu-kien."

The Minister of Japan, in confirmation of his oral statements made in a personal interview, has the honor to now lay the matter officially before the Princes and Ministers of the Tsung-li Yamên, with the request that a reply be given to this communication for transmission by telegraph to his Government.

The Minister of Japan avails himself of this occasion to renew to Their Highnesses and Their Excellencies the assurances of his most distinguished consideration.

THE TSUNG-LI YAMEN TO MR. YANO.

[Translation.]

PEKING, April 26, 1898.

Prince Ch'ing and the Ministers of the Tsung-li Yamên have the honor to reply to a communication from the Minister of Japan, dated 2d day, 3d intercalary month, 24th year Kuang-hsü (April 22, 1898,) which reads as follows:

"A telegram has just been received from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, which reads as follows:

"The Government of Japan has viewed with constant deep concern the difficulties with which the Government of China has recently been confronted. The declaration made at the time of the evacuation of Wei-Hai Wei is evidence of this. It is to be apprehended that trouble may arise with consequences disastrous to China. In all this there is no mistaking what our real purpose is.

"In view of the present state of affairs, the Government of Japan, mindful of its own interests, cannot act as if entirely in ignorance of passing events, but must take proper measures to meet any situation that may arise. You will ask the Government of China to make a declaration that it will not cede or lease to any other Power any portion of its territory within the Province of Fu-kien.""

Referring to his oral statements made in a personal interview, the Minister of Japan requests that a reply be given to his communication.

The Princes and the Ministers have the honor to state that the Province of Fu-kien, with all the territory in the interior and along the seacoast within its limits, which is an important part of China, China will never cede or lease to any Power whatsoever; and to request that this reply be communicated to the Government of Japan.

The Princes and the Ministers avail themselves of this opportunity to renew to the Minister of Japan the assurances of their most distinguished consideration.

No. 27.

GREAT BRITAIN AND RUSSIA.

IDENTIC NOTES EXCHANGED BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND RUSSIA WITH REGARD TO THEIR RESPECTIVE RAILWAY INTERESTS IN CHINA. a

APRIL 28, 1899.

SIR C. SCOTT TO COUNT MOURAVIEFF.

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 consideration 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 Yangtze 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 Government the present arrangement, which, by averting all cause of complications between them, is of a nature to consolidate peace in the Far East, and to serve the primordial interests of China herself.

ST. PETERSBURG, April 28, 1899.

CHARLES S. SCOTT.

a British and Foreign State Papers.—Vol. XCI, pp. 91–94.

SIR C. SCOTT TO COUNT MOURAVIEFF.

In order to complete the notes exchanged this day respecting the partition of spheres for Concessions for the construction and working of railways in China, it has been agreed to record in the present additional note the agreement arrived at with regard to the line Shanhaikuan-Newchwang, for the construction of which a loan has been already contracted by the Chinese Government with the ShanghaiHongkong Bank, acting on behalf of the British and Chinese Corporation.

The general arrangement established by the above-mentioned notes is not to infringe in any way the rights acquired under the said Loan Contract, and the Chinese Government may appoint both an English engineer and an European accountant to supervise the construction of the line in question, and the expenditure of the money appropriated to it.

But it remains understood that this fact cannot be taken as constituting a right of property or foreign control, and that the line in question is to remain a Chinese line, under the control of the Chinese Government, and cannot be mortgaged or alienated to a non-Chinese Company.

As regards the branch line from Siaoheishan to Sinminting, in addition to the aforesaid restrictions, it has been agreed that it is to be constructed by China herself, who may permit European-not necessarily British-engineers to periodically inspect it, and to verify and certify that the work is being properly executed.

The present special Agreement is naturally not to interfere in any way with the right of the Russian Government to support, if it thinks fit, applications of Russian subjects or establishments for Concessions for railways, which, starting from the main Manchurian line in a southwesterly direction, would traverse the region in which the Chinese line terminating at Sinminting and Newchwang is to be constructed. CHARLES S. SCOTT."

ST. PETERSBURG, April 28, 1899.

The same, mutatis mutandis, was sent the same day by Count Mouravieff, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia to Sir Charles Scott.

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