By DEAN DEXTER
A significant event in New Hampshire that captured the attention of the
world in the early twentieth century, but which has since fallen away from the
public mind is The Treaty of Portsmouth, which ended the Russo-Japanese War.
The treaty was signed on September 5, 1905 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,
situated on Seavey Island in the middle of the Piscatiqua River, between Maine
and New Hampshire. It was the first international peace conference to be held
in the United States and earned then-President Theodore Roosevelt the 1906
Nobel Peace Prize.
As the country entered a new century, the Treaty of Portsmouth signaled a kind
of coming of age for the Republic, a debut on the world stage that would in
but a few years see a swirl of events demanding more world leadership
from Washington. Indeed, it can be argued that the Russo-Japanese War helped
ferment tensions in Europe which eventually led to World War I. The
domino-effect of events that in turn followed later launched the second World
War and the nearly 50 years of East-West tensions known as the Cold War.
In fact great international questions remain to this day, rooted in the nearly
forgotten Russo-Japanese conflict. Nearly forgotten, but apparently not lost
on current leaders of the two nations involved. As of this writing, Russia and Japan have
not signed a peace treaty ending World War II, partly due to bitterness traced
to their bloody 1904-1905 engagement. Nor is this bit of history forgotten by
people involved in such organizations as the Japan-America and Russian
Societies of New Hampshire, and an organization called the Portsmouth Peace
Treaty Forum, which keeps alive the spirit of community interest in global
affairs nurtured in Portsmouth in 1905 by locally hosting international
meetings of scholars and diplomats.
"What was unique about events surrounding the Treaty of Portsmouth was that
the people of the city were the real hosts of the event," says Charles Doleac,
an attorney and president of the Treaty Forum and a longtime student of
Russo-Japanese relations. Doleac emphasizes that the whole community was
behind the event, lending a warm spirit of hospitality and goodwill that
certainly added to the peace process and which was also not lost on
negotiators from the two nations.
Unlike similar frenetic events of today which involve photo opportunities,
daily press conferences, and instantaneous TV coverage - in which the
President seems always a dominating presence - the environment surrounding the
Portsmouth negotiations were much different. Although the foreign and domestic
press was on hand - represented by big city newspapers and such popular
periodicals as Harper's Weekly, the pace and tone of the historic meetings,
which lasted about 30 days, were methodical and sedate. The commodious
Wentworth By-the-Sea Hotel (where both delegations were housed), with its
refreshing ocean breezes, long verandahs, and excellent cuisine, added to the
relaxing, businesslike pace of the talks, which were held a few miles away at
the shipyard, in a brick store house where a museum commemorating the treaty
is now located.
So, the dominant outside factor of the peace negotiations in Portsmouth was
not the fishbowl effect of instantaneous worldwide press exposure, nor the
onsite hovering of a President as micromanager. Rather, it was the gracious
role played by the proud but discrete host community itself, a historic city
in its own right which pre-dates the American Revolution.
Roosevelt, who originally lobbied to bring the two nations together, never set
foot in Portsmouth during the talks, but instead was holed up for the summer
at Sagamore Hill, his estate at Oyster Bay, New York, where he was regularly
kept abreast of the meetings via telegraph. In fact, the reason the parlay was
not held in Washington was due to the insufferable humidity the Capital City
is subject to from June to September, making work there impossible prior to
air conditioning. Before World War II, Washington virtually shut down each
summer.
Actually, the Portsmouth site won out over a mini-competition between Portland
and Bar Harbor, Maine, Newport, Rhode Isalnd, and Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Portsmouth was chosen because of the security and communications resources of
the Shipyard, its closeness to Oyster Bay, and because of the community's
growing reputation as a desirable tourist area. The Russians had originally
wanted to meet in Europe, the Japanese in Asia, but at Roosevelt's invitation,
they agreed to meet in the United States.
According to one historian, New Hampshire Governor John McLane and the
Executive Council dispatched an invitation to Roosevelt that June promoting
the Granite State as the best site. Word of the Portsmouth choice was relayed
later that month by Assistant Secretary of State Herbert H D Pierce, who
would later remain on the scene throughout the talks as a special liaison to
Roosevelt.
Leading the Russian delegation was Sergius Witte, former imperial Minister of
Finance, and veteran diplomat Baron Roman Rosen. Heading the Japanese
delegates were Baron Iutaro Komura, veteran foreign service officer and 1878
graduate of Harvard, and Japan's ambassador to Washington, Kogoro Takashira.
Henry W. Denison of Lancaster, NH, a veteran U.S. vice consul in Japan and
long-time technical advisor to Japan's foreign office, assisted the Japanese
team.
Main conference room, Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The conference table was once at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, N.Y., now it is in Japan as an icon to a great moment in history.
Gov. McLane and the Council welcomed the delegates to Portsmouth at a festive
reception at the old Rockingham County Courthouse on August 8, which included
a parade through the city with many diplomats and other dignitaries attending.
NH National Guard and U.S. Marine units acted as honor guards. The formal
talks began on August 10.
The meetings were conducted in four languages (Japanese, Russian, English and
French). Three-hour morning and afternoon sessions were held throughout, with
variations in this schedule as stalemates developed. The delegates reportedly
visited Roosevelt at Oyster Bay on only one occasion each. The governor and
his staff remained at the Wentworth throughout the negotiations, facilitating
an air of helpfulness and hospitality when the delegates were not in formal
meetings.
Following the treaty signing, the Japanese and Russian delegations were so
impressed with this hospitality and of the local people they had met, each
made a cash donation to Governor McLane of $10,000 on behalf of their
governments for charitable purposes, to be determined by McLane.
(When news of the treaty's signing was delivered to Roosevelt by his secretary
William Loeb -- father of the late publisher of the Manchester Union Leader
and NH Sunday News of the same name -- the jovial President reportedly
bounded down the stairs of his mansion yelling, "That's bully for the
Russians, the Japanese, and me!")
As it turns out, the Russian and Japanese negotiators thought they were being
hosted by the state of New Hampshire, when in fact the owner of the Wentworth
(the estate of the late Portsmouth beer baron Frank Jones) provided
accommodations free of charge.
McLane in turn -- as an act of goodwill and diplomacy -- invested the gifts in
Japanese and Russian government bonds. A three person commission was then
established by the state legislature to oversee the investments and disburse
the charitable donations throughout the state, a function that continues
today, despite interruptions in bond payments due to world events.
The Russian government, for instance, defaulted on bond payments early on, following the
Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Lenin was not about the honor the Czar's debts,
and continued in default during the Cold War.
Japan was in default for nine years during World War II, but issued new bonds
in 1951, doubling yearly interest payments for the following nine years to
make up for the lapse. Attempts by the commission to have the Russian
government honor the bonds over the years, including after the fall of the
Soviet Union, have not been successful, therefore the name is now the
"Japanese Charitable Fund."
Members of the commission consist of a chairman, and two who sit by virtue
of their office: the New Hampshire Secretary of State and the State Treasurer.
Other than this fund, a small museum at the shipyard is the only memorial to the events that
once focused the world's attention on this venerable New England seaport where
Capt. John Paul Jones once lived and built one of the US Navy's first ships.
That, and the decaying shell of the old Wentworth* that looms like a ghost
over-looking the sea -- it's great piazzas long gone as are the stiff,
dignified men in silk hats who here one summer long ago ended a war in a far
off land.
*Since this writing, new owners of the long vacant Wentworth By-the-Sea began a complete restoration. Closed since 1982, the hotel reopened on May 15, 2003 with 161 rooms, including many waterfront suites with balconies overlooking the water. The original building was built in 1874. The restored hotel is now the Wentworth-by-the-Sea Marriott Hotel and Spa. It is truly once again one of New Hampshire's grand hotels.
Wentworth-by-the-Sea 1800's
Wentworth-by-the-Sea 1950's
Circa 1980's
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The Wentworth by the Sea Marriot Hotel and Spa, New Castle, New Hampshire
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1976 New Hampshire Association of Counties convention brochure (County Commissioner Dean Dexter Collection)
1953 Quarterly Meeting program, The New England Council, hosted by Co-Chairman and New Hampshire Governor Lane Dwinell.
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The James Barker Smiths, longtime owners of the Wentworth-By-the-Sea, Manchester NH Union Leader, October 8, 1963
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A booklet briefly explaining the Treaty of Portsmouth and the Japanese Charitable Fund was issued in 1980 commemorating the seventy fifth anniversary of the Treaty. Pictured on a page above, at right are the three trustees at the time: Secretary of State William M. Gardner, State Senator John P. H. Chandler, and State Treasurer Robert W. Flanders.
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A version of this article appeared in the April 1997 issue of New Hampshire Magazine. Dean Dexter is a former contributing editor of New Hampshire Magazine, New Hampshire state representative and Belknap County Commissioner.
Portsmouth (N.H.) Historical Society Website
Posting update: March, 2019
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