Mr. Tsui to Mr. Blaine.
Washington, December 18, 1890.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I received on the 15th instant a cablegram from the foreign office in Peking, announcing the issuance, on the 12th instant, of the following imperial decree through the grand council of state:
Ever since treaty relations have been established between China and other nations, we nave yearly and without omission sent our greetings by sealed letters, and consequently our long-standing friendship, as years go by, has become more and more cordial and firm.
It is very gratifying to me to state that all the ministers plenipotentiary who represent their respective governments in this court have been signally successful in the observance of good faith, maintenance of amity, and the promotion of harmonious international intercourse.
In the first and second months of last year, on account of repeated joyful events, the foreign office, in pursuance of Her Majesty the Empress Regent’s command, banqueted all the ministers, so as to have representatives of all nations unite in the enjoyment of the jubilant occasions. As it is two years since we assumed the reins of government, it is appropriate that we should, following the precedent of the 12th year of Tung Chi (1873), grant all the ministers at this capital an audience, and thereafter an annual one, as an evidence of marked courtesy extended to them. So let the foreign office name in its memorial a certain day in the first month of next year for the audience, as above mentioned, to the ministers and charge’s d’affaires at the capital, and on the day following entertain them at a banquet in the foreign office. In the first month of every succeeding year these observances shall be regularly kept up. Any minister who arrives after that date shall have an audience on the regular annual day. When there is a national joyful event, wherein both the native and foreign officials join in the enjoyment of the jubilant occasion, let the foreign office memorialize to the Throne, praying for permission to give a banquet to them, in order to manifest the sincere and ever-increasiug desire of the imperial court in cultivating the friendship of its neighboring courts. Further, let the foreign office beforehand memorialize to the Throne all the ceremonies necessarily pertaining to and befitting the occasion.
Implicitly obey this command.
Accept, etc.,