File No. 158.931/93.
The Russian Chargé d’Affaires to the Secretary of State.
Washington, February 13, 1911.
Mr. Secretary of State: The minister of Russia at Peking has received instructions to ask the Imperial Government of China’s consent to the adoption of the following measures to be taken with a view to preventing the introduction of the plague epidemic into Siberia:
- 1st.
- Establishment of points of sanitary observation on the Chinese bank of the Amur.
- 2d.
- Adoption, under the direction of the Russian Administration in the region of the Amur Basin, of coordinate measures against the epidemic along the rivers that run across Chinese and Russian territory.
- 3d.
- Sanitary examination, in Chinese ports, of laborers proceeding, by sea, to the Russian Province of the Littoral.
- 4th.
- Closing of opium and public houses on the right bank of the Amur facing Russian settlements (towns, villages, etc.) on the left bank.
As these measures have no other object than to combat, jointly with China, the danger to which the plague scourge exposes all the powers and are in nowise invasive of China’s sovereign rights, I have, by order of my Government, the honor to bring them to your excellency’s knowledge with a request that you kindly inform me whether you are disposed, in accordance with your memorandum of January 20 last, to support with the Peking Government the action the minister of Russia is instructed to take with a view to putting the above-enumerated measures into operation.
Be pleased, etc.,