File No. 5767/123A.
The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.1
Washington, November 16, 1909.
Mr. Wilson informs Mr. Reid that on the 15th instant the department made public the following statement relating to the Chinese-Japanese Manchurian agreement of September 4 last:
In view of the widespread publicity of the statement that the recent Chinese-Japanese agreement relating to Manchuria created for Chinese and Japanese subjects a monopoly to carry on mining operations along the South Manchurian Railway and Antung-Mukden Railway, which would exclude American nationals from an extensive field of industrial enterprise, inquiry has been made of the two signatory powers and official assurance has been received from each to the effect that no such exclusive claim to mining rights was intended by the agreement; and that, if minerals are found by Americans or others within the designated territory, no objection will be made to their working such mines under concessions granted by China, the whole scope and purpose of the agreement being that any operation by Chinese and Japanese subjects of the mines within the territory mentioned should be joint as between themselves.
The above assurance confirms the conclusion already reached by the department as a result of its careful study of the agreement in the light of related and contextual evidence.
- Sent also to the American embassies at Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, and Tokyo, and to the American legation at Peking.↩