861.77/2769: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in France (Herrick)1
311. Your 398, October 13, 5 p.m.
Repeat following to London as Department’s 312 for action and to Rome as Department’s 147 for information and take at Paris action similar to that outlined for London.
“Advise Foreign Office that the French Government has now given formal adherence to the proposals contained in this Government’s memorandum of last August concerning the termination of Allied supervision of the Chinese Eastern Railway.2 No reply has been received from Italy, but it is felt that final arrangements cannot longer be delayed in view of the impending completion of the evacuation of the Siberian mainland. The following common course of action is therefore proposed:
- (1)
- Each Government to instruct forthwith its representative on the Inter-Allied Committee and Technical Board to wind up those organizations on October 31 next or as soon thereafter as possible and to withdraw all foreign railway experts appointed under the 1919 Agreement;
- (2)
- Each to instruct its diplomatic representative at Peking to present to the Chinese Foreign Office on October 31 a note in the sense outlined in this Government’s memorandum of last August, these notes to be similar in purport but not necessarily identical; and
- (3)
- To give publicity to the foregoing action at the respective capitals on the same day.
If before October 31 a favorable reply is received from Italy, that Government will of course be asked to join in the same course of action.
Telegraph as promptly as possible whether Foreign Office agrees with the foregoing. As soon as there is general agreement and provided a reply to the original proposals has not in the meantime been received from Italy, that Government will be apprised of the decision of the other four Powers to act in any event on October 31.”