[287]. Count Lamsdorff said on November 22, 1903, to Mr. Kurino, Japanese Minister at St. Petersburg, that “Russia once took possession of Manchuria by right of conquest....” The Kwampō, March 24, 1904, supplement, p. 8.
[288]. The circular note addressed to the Powers on June 3/16, China, No. 3 (1900), No. 49; the letter to the Chinese Government on June 11/24, China, No. 2 (1904), p. 18; the Czar’s reply to the Chinese Emperor, China, No. 1 (1901), No. 105, etc.
The Emperor had sent a specially worded personal message to each of the heads of the French, German, Russian, British, American, and Japanese nations, once about July 19 and again on October 14, that is, before and after the capture of Peking by the allied forces. In each case the Emperor made a special appeal to the person addressed, and begged him to take the initiative in coming to China’s assistance in solving the situation. The various replies are highly instructive. It seems that the Czar supposed that he had alone been singled out by the Chinese Empire for the first special plea, and answered accordingly.
See China, No. 1 (1901), Nos. 1, 51, 56, 61, 78, 79, 105, 113, 252; China, No. 5 (1901), Nos. 5, 24, 72, 108, 134, 174, 197; China, No. 2 (1904), p. 18; 56th Congress, 2d Session, House Documents, vol. i. pp. 293–296.
[289]. China, No. 3 (1900), No. 149.
[290]. These principles, says Lord Salisbury, on July 15, “have never been accepted by Her Majesty’s Government, nor have we as yet discussed with other powers the circumstances to which those principles might possibly apply.”—China, No. 1 (1901), No. 44. Secretary Hay thought that the Russian Chargé’s oral communication was “not explicit enough” to enable him to comment upon the so-called fundamental principles of Russia.—Ibid., No. 114. Later, about July 30, Mr. Hay replied to Russia by referring to his own circular note of July 3, and said that he deemed it “premature to forecast the means of bringing about those results [i. e., the restoration of order and responsible government in China].”—Ibid., No. 140. It is particularly remarkable that two of the Powers most interested in the principles proposed by Russia should be so conservative when the question was propounded by that Power.
[291]. China, No. 2 (1904), pp. 1 and 18.
It is interesting to compare these “fundamental principles” of Russia with the principles laid down in Secretary Hay’s circular telegraph addressed to the Powers on July 3, or probably some days before the Russian note: “... The purpose of the President is, as it has been heretofore,” it said, “to act concurrently with the other Powers, first, in opening up communication with Peking and securing the American officials, missionaries, and other Americans who are in danger; secondly, in affording all protection everywhere in China to American life and property; thirdly, in guarding and protecting all legitimate American interests; and fourthly, in aiding to prevent a spread of the disorders to the other provinces of the Empire and a recurrence of such disorders. It is, of course, too early to forecast the means of attaining this last result; but the policy of the Government of the United States is to seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety, and peace to China, preserve Chinese territorial and administrative entity, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly Powers by treaty and international law, and safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire.”—The 56th Congress, 2d Session, House Documents, vol. i. p. 299. It will be observed that the American note is not only probably earlier in date, but also much wider in scope, than the Russian propositions, for the former contains the open door principle, among others, which receives no reference in the latter. It should be remembered, however, that the American note was not a proposition to the other Powers.
[292]. China, No. 1 (1901), No. 256.
[293]. Statements of similar import occur in the Official Messenger of August 13, in the instructions given on October 25 by Count Lamsdorff to the Russian Representatives abroad, and those on December 28 by General Kuropatkin to the governors-general of the Amur and Kwan-tung Provinces. See Tokushu Jōyaku, pp. 259–260.