File No. 893.51/1340.
The Russian Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
[Memorandum handed to the Secretary of State by the Russian Ambassador, February 19, 1913.]
The Chinese Government has notified the representatives in Peking of the six powers participating in the loan consortium of its intention to choose in connection with the reorganization loan the following foreign advisers: For the salt monopoly, the Dane Oiesen; for the control department, the Italian Rossi; and for the bureau of loans, the German Rumpf.
This proposition, however, did not meet with the unanimous approval of the six Envoys of the interested powers, who decided to recommend to their respective Governments the following scheme: an Englishman for adviser in the salt monopoly; a German for the bureau of loans; the control department to be provided with two advisers: one Russian and one Frenchman, invested with equal rights; and furthermore to compensate Russia and France by appointing a greater number of their respective subjects as district inspectors in the salt monopoly.
The Imperial Russian Government considers the above-mentioned scheme suggested by the representatives of the six interested powers to be satisfactory as far as its own interests are concerned, but would like to know, before instructing in this sense the Russian Minister in Peking, the point of view of the Federal Government in regard to this matter.