Mr. Sherman to Mr. Denby.
Washington , May 15, 1897 .
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 2722, of March 24 last, with which you inclose the reply made by the Tsung-li Yamên refusing to comply with your renewed demand for the punishment of the delinquent officials concerned in the Kutien riots in August, 1895, and in which you suggest that the matter, as a separate and distinct contention, be dropped, and that it be blended together with the proposition to secure the adoption of general preventive measures applicable to the future.
In furtherance of the policy outlined in the Department’s No. 1312 of July 28, 1896, concerning the prevention of antiforeign riots, it was the duty of this Government to insist, in every case, on the punishment of all officials found guilty in any degree in connection with such occurrences. The failure of Great Britain to act on the same lines in the Kutien case, to which the Yamên refers, made it only the more necessary for the United States, even though their people and interests had suffered but little in that riot, to clearly indicate that this policy was to be urged on China whenever a riot happened. This was done not only in the Kutien, but in the Kiang Yin case as well. However, in view of your suggestion and the arguments in support thereof, and [Page 67] considering that the discussion with the Yamên of the general question of antiforeign riots is now open, you are instructed not to press, for the present, for the punishment of the Fukien officials implicated in the Kutien affair unless you fail to obtain the Chinese Government’s approval of the propositions embodied in your note to the Yamên (a draft of which was inclosed in the Department’s No. 1368 of November 25, 1896), and the promulgation by official decrees of the measures therein proposed, or analogous ones, by which the same end may be obtained.
Respectfully, etc.,