Mr. Denby, chargé, to Mr. Gresham.
Peking, September 24, 1894. (Received October 31.)
Sir: I have the honor to state that the Japanese, Ishikawa Goichi, referred to in my dispatch of the 5th instant1 as having been arrested at Tientsin as a spy, was executed on the 20th instant at that city. He was first shot and then beheaded. A Chinaman named Lin, a secretary in the employ of the ordnance department, who was convicted of having given information to Ishikawa, was also beheaded. Lin confessed and repeated his confession in Ishikawa’s presence.
Notwithstanding the suspicious circumstances surrounding this unfortunate Japanese, the severity of the, punishment inflicted upon him is greatly to be regretted. No Japanese troops were then upon the soil of China. The war was being conducted entirely abroad and on the sea. The penalty of death was out of all proportion to the crime and out of all proportion to the injury which the alleged spy’s reports could have been able to inflict. The Japanese Government had assured China that Ishikawa was not a spy, and it is feared they will be tempted to retaliation for what will be regarded as an unjust sentence.
I have, etc.,
- Not printed.↩