Embassy
of the United States,
St.
Petersburg, February 3,
1902.
No. 523.]In accordance with your instructions I addressed at once a note to the
Count Lamsdorff, Imperial Russian minister for foreign affairs,
communicating to him the text of your telegram, and I now respectfully
inclose to you herewith a copy of that note.
I have, etc.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Tower to
Count Lamsdorff.
Embassy of the United States,
St. Petersburg, February 3, 1902.
Mr. Minister for Foreign Affairs: In
obedience to instructions which I have received from the Government
of the United States, I have the honor to inform your excellency
that the American minister to China has reported, in a telegram
recently received at Washington, that Prince Ching has agreed to
sign the Manchurian convention and also a separate convention with
the Russo-Chinese Bank under which exclusive privileges of
industrial development in Manchuria are to be granted to that
bank.
I am instructed to say that the Government of the United States could
look only with concern upon any arrangement by which China should
extend to a corporate company the exclusive right within its
territory to open mines, construct railways, or to exert other
industrial privileges.
It is the belief of the Government of the United States that by
permitting or creating a monopoly of this character, China would
contravene the treaties which it has already entered into with
foreign powers and would injure the rights of American citizens by
restricting legitimate trade; also that such action would lead to
the impairment of Chinese sovereignty and tend to diminish the
ability of China to meet its obligations. Other powers as well might
be expected to seek similar exclusive advantages in different parts
of the Chinese Empire, which would destroy the policy of equal
treatment of all nations in regard to navigation and commerce
throughout China.
I am further instructed to convey to your excellency the sentiment of
the United States Government that the acquiring by any one power of
exclusive privileges in China for its own subjects or its own
commerce would be contradictory to the assurances repeatedly given
by the Imperial Russian ministry for foreign affairs to the United
States of the intention of the Russian Government to maintain the
policy of the open door in China as that policy has been advocated
by the United States and accepted by all the powers who have
commercial interests within the Chinese Empire.
I am to assure your excellency that the Government of the United
States is now, as it has always been heretofore, animated by the
desire to secure for all nations entirely equal intercourse with
China, and I am instructed to present to your excellency the request
that the Imperial Russian Government will give due attention to the
foregoing considerations, which have also been addressed to the
Chinese Government, and to express to your excellency the hope that
such measures of procedure may be adopted as will allay the
apprehensions of the Government of the United States.
I avail myself, etc.,
