The Japanese Minister to the Secretary of State.
Washington, November 4, 1905.
Sir: Acknowledging the receipt of your note No. 230, dated the 1st of November, advising me of the receipt of a telegram from the American chargé d’affaires ad interim at St. Petersburg in which he reported the proposal made by the Russian minister for foreign affairs in regard to the exchange of prisoners of war, I have the honor to inform you that I have received a telegram from His Imperial Majesty’s minister for foreign affairs to the effect that the Imperial Government have agreed to the proposal of the Russian Government, that in respect to the prisoners in the theater of war, the commanders in chief of the Japanese and Russian armies in Manchuria shall arrange for the exchange of them there. As regards the Japanese prisoners in European Russia, Baron Komura adds that the Imperial Government also desires that they shall be surrendered as soon as possible before the winter season is advanced.
I beg therefore to request under instruction that you will have the goodness to make the necessary communication to the Russian Government in the above sense.
Accept, etc.,