Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1898
The Tsung-li Yamên to the Dean of the diplomatic corps.
We have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the letter by which your excellency announces his intention of coming to the Yamên to-day at a quarter past 4 to make a verbal communication to the members of the Yamên.
To-day we must preside at the board of justice, and we can not meet your excellency at the hour named. We have already sent to your legation a letter to notify you.
However, since your excellency has a verbal communication to make to us, we propose to go to your legation to-morrow, the 3d instant, at 2 o’clock, and we hope that your excellency will have the goodness to await us there.
With the cards of Wang Wen-Hao, Hsü Yung-i, Liao Shou-Hong, and Ch’ang Li.
[Page 234]Red letter of the Yamên to the Dean of the diplomatic corps.
Referring to the incident of brick and stone throwing at Tien-ciao, the Yamên has already given orders for the arrest and severe punishment of the offenders and to establish certain measures of protection in order to avoid troubles which may follow.
Just now we have heard that all the foreign ministers who reside at Peking have spoken of a project to call troops to Peking for the purpose of guarding themselves.
If this is true, we believe the popular sentiment will be excited by it and it will be likely to produce new incidents.
In a word, China must avow absolutely the right which she has to protect, and to find means to that end without inconsideration or hurry.
We must therefore beg your excellency to be kind enough to request the ministers, your colleagues, to telegraph in order to stop the soldiers, whom it is not necessary to call to Peking.
Please accept, etc.
The Tsung-li Yamên to the Dean of the diplomatic corps.
We have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the note sent by your excellency to the Yamên on the 1st of October. (Here follows an abridged text of the note.)
We have to say that on the same day, even before we had received the note sent by your excellency, we had already received an imperial edict in the following terms:
“We order that the prince and ministers of the Yamên should immediately proceed with an investigation and treat this affair in a satisfactory manner.”
Then the Yamên wrote to the chief officer of the gendarmerie to forthwith arrest and severely punish those responsible for the disorder and to establish such protective measures as will prevent the repetition of like disorders.
The gendarmerie has already arrested and punished the offenders, upon the necks of whom they have put kangs, to serve as a salutary warning to the crowd.
They have also sent a great number of pickets of selected soldiers, who, within their sphere, will look after the security, allay the disturbances, and furnish protection.
Then there will be no further trouble.
Doyen of the diplomatic corps to the Tsung-li Yamên.
I have had the honor of receiving the note which your highness and your excellencies have yesterday addressed me in reply to mine of October 1, and I must inform the Yamên that all my honorable colleagues [Page 235] think that this reply is not very satisfactory from several points of view.
The diplomatic corps does not deduct from it sufficient cause to be sure of the protection of foreigners in Peking, and it remarks very especially that its tenor does not at all correspond with the expression of regret and courtesy which it had a right to expect from the Chinese Government.
The foreign representatives at Peking, after having examined the matter which is discussed in the Red Letter of this date, have decided to bring to the capital, as they have already proposed, some marines or soldiers, as well to guard the personnel of their legations as for a guaranty to all foreigners, of which they reserve the right to judge for themselves.
They direct me to say to the Yamên that day after to-morrow the first three detachments, composed each of about thirty men—Germans, English, and Russians—will be ready to leave Tientsin for Peking.
In the name of the diplomatic corps, I request the Yamên to give the necessary orders for a special train to be placed at their disposal in order that they may accomplish the journey. The military escorts belonging to other nations will follow as soon thereafter as they are disembarked.
The Tsung-li Yamên to the Dean of the diplomatic corps.
We acknowledge receipt of the note of your excellency of yesterday’s date on the subject of the escorts it is still desired to call to Peking. (Follows an abridgment of the note.)
The Yamên notes that your excellency, in his note of the 1st instant, informed the Yamên of the several incidents which occurred on September 30, but that on the same day, and even before the note of your excellency had been sent, we had already received an imperial edict which ordered us, the prince and ministers of the Tsung-li Yamên, to proceed immediately to an inquiry, and to definitely determine that affair.
In conformity with that order, we have written to the director-general of the gendarmerie to immediately ascertain the responsible authors of the disturbances, and to cause them to be very severely punished, as well as to fix the responsibility and degrade the underofficers and soldiers who have shown themselves negligent in their police duties.
On the 4th instant the council of state received a verbal edict from His Majesty the Emperor, part of which we have already brought to the attention of your excellency and to all the foreign representatives.
These troubles have come unexpectedly, but His Majesty the Emperor, at once on being informed of the affair, even before your note had arrived, had given immediate orders to treat promptly and definitely this matter.
This furnishes a sincere proof of their intention to protect.
However, we, the prince and the ministers, infinitely regretting the disturbances, and in conformity with the imperial decree, and with the aid of the gendarmerie and the censors of Peking, are going to establish sure means of protection.
[Page 236]Henceforth the responsibility of protection will rest with China, who will find with certainty a satisfactory way, with the hope of enjoying an uninterrupted peace.
We hope that your excellency will ask your colleagues to be kind enough not to bring their soldiers for protection. This for the purpose of preventing the spirit of the people from being excited, the circulation of false rumors, and provoking, we fear, other troubles.
Red Letter of the Yamên to the Dean of the diplomatic corps.
We acknowledge receipt of dispatch by which your excellency informs us that the legations of Russia, Germany, and England had issued new orders, as they before proposed, for their escorts to come to Peking, etc.
We, prince and ministers, after having read this note, have decided to ask you to temporarily stop the coming of these troops to Peking.
To-morrow at 9 o’clock we will repair to your legation to discuss verbally these questions, and we hope your excellency will kindly await us.
The dean of the diplomatic corps to the Tsung-li Yamên.
I have received the note and letter of your highness and your excellencies in regard to the departure of the German, English, and Russian escorts for Peking.
Your highness and your excellencies announce also your visit for tomorrow, at 9.30 o’clock, for the purpose of discussing that affair with me, with the object of suspending the voyage.
I hasten to reply that to-morrow at 9.30 I will have nothing to discuss or argue with your highness and your excellencies upon that question, because I must carry out the resolutions taken by the diplomatic corps yesterday, and which I had the honor to communicate to your highness and your excellencies in my note of this morning.
This note was approved by the ministers of Germany and England and by the chargé d’affaires of Russia, on the night of the 5th instant, to whom it was submitted, as being directly interested in the voyage of these three detachments, it being impossible to make it known to the other colleagues without devoting the entire night to it.
Sir Claude MacDonald to the Dean of the diplomatic body.
My Dear Dean: I beg to report, for the information of my colleagues, that this morning I received a visit from His Highness Prince Ching and three members of the Chinese Government.
After a discussion lasting over two hours they agreed to allow the [Page 237] passage of the legation escorts and to provide a special train for their conveyance, and also to grant any other facilities which might be necessary. They also stated that they would guarantee that order would be preserved during the passage of the escorts.
The prince and ministers stated that the bringing of troops to Peking was my initiative, and if the English detachment did not leave Tientsin no other detachments would.
I said that the entire diplomatic body were in accord in this matter, and we were acting as one, no single power taking the lead in any way.
They told me that they had been informed that the contrary was the case, but they declined to tell me who had been their informant. Under the circumstances, I shall feel obliged if your excellency will write a letter to the prince and ministers stating, in the name of all the foreign representatives, that in the matter of bringing legation guards to Peking the entire diplomatic body is in accord, and the action taken is not due to the initiative of any one particular legation, but is due to the deliberate and expressed wish of the entire diplomatic body.
I am, my dear Dean, yours, very sincerely,
Interview between Sir Claude MacDonald and Prince Ching and the ministers Hsü-Yung-i Ching Li, and Hu Yu-yi, governor of Peking, at the British legation, on October 6, 1898.
The Prince appealed to Sir Claude MacDonald to countermand his marines who were on their way to Peking to act as legation guard.
The Empress Dowager, whom he had seen that morning, was exceedingly disturbed at the intention of the foreign representatives to summon their guards to this city. Her Majesty had issued a decree that day setting forth the great importance China attached to the proper protection of foreigners and enjoining the strictest precautions. The prince thought that the Chinese Government had given quite sufficient proof of its determination to make proper arrangements for this purpose, and that the presence of foreign guards was unnecessary. He dwelt upon the slight to the dignity of China which would be involved in the action of the foreign representatives.
Sir Claude MacDonald recounted the events of the past few days in connection with this affair. He had consented, at the request of the Chinese Government, and in conjunction with the representatives of Germany and Russia, whose detachments had already arrived at Taku, to delay the arrival of his men, pending a meeting of the diplomatic body, and expressed his opinion that the foreign representatives would be guided by the action of the Chinese Government in the matter. If the Chinese Government took satisfactory steps, it was probable that the guards would not come to Peking.
Unfortunately, at this meeting of the diplomatic body on the evening of the 4th instant a dispatch was read from the Yamên treating the affair of the assaults upon foreigners very lightly; and neither in this dispatch nor in a Red Letter, which arrived at the same time, were there any expressions of regret as to what had occurred. This decided the foreign representatives at once to summon their guards from Tientsin.
Sir Claude MacDonald earnestly advised the prince that the course the Chinese Government could now adopt was to give willing assent to the arrival of the guards, provide a special train, and afford every facility to the guards during their passage to Peking. This would have a very good effect upon the foreign representatives, and, combined with proper and stringent measures for the prevention of similar assaults upon foreigners, would possibly result in an early departure of the men brought up.
The prince pleaded strongly for delay and for division of the guards into detachments to come up separately.
To all these requests Sir Claude MacDonald gave a distinct refusal. He regretted the necessity for so doing, but the Chinese had brought it upon themselves.
The ministers stated that they had heard that Sir Claude MacDonald was taking the initiative in this matter, and that he had only to agree to countermand his men for all the other foreign representatives to follow suit, but they declined to give the names of their informants.
Sir Claude MacDonald showed that this was not the case. The action of the foreign representatives had been decided upon jointly, and could only be reconsidered jointly. He again advised them to make arrangements for the transit of the men.
[Page 238]It was finally understood that a special train would be provided next day, so as to bring the men to Ma Chia-pu not later than 4 p.m.
The interview lasted upward of two hours.
Dean of the diplomatic corps to the Tsung-li Yamên.
His excellency, the British minister, informs me, in a letter addressed to me in my capacity of dean, that during a visit which your highness and three other ministers of the Tsung-li Yamên made him on the morning of October 6, your highness and your excellencies said to him that the foreign escorts were coming to Peking by his sole initiation, and if the English detachment would not leave Tientsin no other would come; that he had denied this, and affirmed that the affair was considered by the whole diplomatic corps, and all the representives acted together.
Upon the request of his excellency, and with the approval of all the other colleagues, I to-day address the Yamên in order to certify that the foreign escorts are in fact coming to Peking by the unanimous decision of the whole diplomatic corps, taken at a meeting which was held for the purpose of deliberating together and carefully examining the question.
I profit, etc.
The Tsung li Yamên to the Dean of the diplomatic corps.
For an official communication, it was said in your excellency’s note of October 5, instant, that the number of soldiers composing each of the escorts (Russian, English, and German was about thirty. But the detachments arrived to-day; the Germans had thirty, the English less than thirty, and the Russians alone had sixty-six.
This is not accordance with the note which your excellency sent us.
We request, therefore, that your excellency will be kind enough to reply immediately and explain to us the cause of it.
This is important.
The dean of the diplomatic corps to the Tsung-li Yamên.
I have had the honor to receive the note of yesterday in which your highness and your excellencies presented to me a question concerning the composition of the detachments which had arrived.
In my note of the 5th instant I brought to the knowledge of your highness and your excellencies the firm decision taken by all my colleagues to bring to Peking the escorts which they had requested for the [Page 239] protection of the legations, and I requested you, in accordance with the desire of the diplomatic corps, to take the necessary steps to have a special train placed at the disposition of the three first detachments which should leave Tientsin on the 6th instant.
It was in view of the composition of the train that I deemed it necessary to indicate the approximate number of men in each detachment.
As to the question of the exact number of men of each of the three nationalities which arrived yesterday, your highness and your excellencies have only to address yourselves to the legations which this concerns if you deem it necessary and useful.