Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/302

RV 272 to China, and, so far from consenting to recognize the principle of equal opportunity for the commerce and industry of all nations in that country, requested Japan to acknowledge Manchuria and its littoral as entirely outside her sphere of interest. She further proposed various restrictions upon Japan's freedom of action in Corea; for instance, while recognizing Japan's right to despatch troops, when necessary, for the protection of her interests in Corea, Russia demanded previous notice in case of such despatch, and she refused to allow Japan to use any portion of Corean territory for strategical purposes. She went so far, in fact, as to propose to establish a neutral zone covering all Corean territory north of the 39th parallel, that is to say, more than one-third of the entire Corean Empire.

But, as the maintenance of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China in Manchuria is absolutely essential to the preservation of the independence of Corea, and as such maintenance was none other than a principle which had been voluntarily and repeatedly declared by Russia herself, and, moreover as it was considered necessary to keep uninjured the commercial interests of all the Powers concerned, upon the strength of the Russian engagement to respect treaty rights, the Imperial Government decided to maintain to the end their proposal on that subject, and necessary amendments to other Articles were also made. For instance, the imposition of any restriction on Japan in sending troops to Corea should be struck out. A neutral zone, if it was to be created, should be established on both sides of the boundary line between Manchuria and Corea with the same extent either way—i.e., fifty kilometres on each side. With these amendments several interviews took place with Baron Rosen from the 6th October last, and as the result of repeated discussions, in which some of our amendments were accepted while as to others no agreement was arrived at, our definitive amendments were presented to Baron Rosen on the 30th of that month, and the Russian Government were asked to consider them. Although we frequently pressed for an answer, the Russian reply was again greatly delayed and it only reached us on the IIth December. This embodied the 2nd Russian counter-proposals. If the regret of the Imperial Government at such delay was deep, their disappointment at the contents of the reply, when it