Office of the Historian

The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé Coolidge.

Department of State,
Washington, November 23, 1906.
No. 217.]

Sir: I inclose herewith, for your information, a copy of a dispatch from the American ambassador to Russia, reporting the substance of a conversation which he has had with the Russian minister for foreign affairs respecting the establishment of Chinese customs-houses in Manchuria.

I am, etc.,

Robert Bacon,
Acting Secretary.

(Note.—Same to the Embassy at Tokyo, No. 47, November 23, 1906.)

[Inclosure.]

Ambassador Meyer to the Secretary of State.

American Embassy,
St. Petersburg, November 7, 1906.
No. 683.]

Sir: I beg leave to acknowledge receipt of your instructions No. 174, dated September 20, in regard to the open door in Manchuria, in which special reference is made to the necessity for the establishment of custom-houses in that region.

Yesterday I took up the matter with Mr. Izvolsky, minister of foreign affairs, and called to his attention that the Japanese authorities were willing to accede to the establishment of Chinese custom-houses in southern Manchuria, provided the Russian Imperial Government invited the Chinese Government to establish custom-houses in northern Manchuria.

The minister of foreign affairs stated that the question was complicated by the neutral zone and other considerations, but that the matter had been seriously taken up and he would report to me later on the subject.

I have, etc.,

G. v. L. Meyer.