Note 290 — Chapter VII · NORTH CHINA AND MANCHURIA

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.