Mr. Yang Yü to Mr. Olney.
Washington , July 1, 1896 .
Sir: I have the honor to state that upon my receipt, in June, 1894, of a petition from the Chinese residents in Bluefields, Nicaragua, proposing the appointment of Mr. Ferdinand Beer, an American citizen, as a consular representative of China there, I addressed a note to your Department, asking its good offices in obtaining information regarding the character and standing of the said Mr. Beer, which it did in due course by transmitting me copy of a note from the United States minister to Nicaragua, speaking favorably of that gentleman. It would have been a matter of gratification to me to bring about the appointment of Mr. Beer as a consular agent of China, but the nonexistence of treaty relations between China and Nicaragua precluded the possibility of taking such a step. As there are diplomatic and consular representatives of the United States in Nicaragua—and taking for a precedent the case of Guatemala, where the United States minister, by courtesy of his Government toward that of China, is permitted to exercise his good offices on behalf of Chinese residing in that Republic—I am led again to invoke the friendly offices of the United States Government, [Page 95] by which the minister and consuls of the United States may be invested with the proper authority to afford protection to those Chinese who may reside in that country, and to ask that you will kindly direct the honorable minister to obtain the assent of the Nicaraguan Government to the proposed arrangement.
I further have the honor to state that I am in receipt of another petition, received in March last from Chinese subjects residing in San Salvador, requesting that the friendly offices of a representative of the United States be obtained, by which the interests of Chinese in that Republic may be cared for. As I find that your diplomatic representative to Nicaragua is accredited in a like capacity to San Salvador, I beg to invoke the same friendly offices of your Government as accorded in the case of Guatemala and as above requested in the case of Nicaragua, asking at the same time that your minister be directed to obtain the assent of the Government of San Salvador to the arrangement above proposed.
In conclusion, permit me to say that the above proposals are made after due advisement with my home Government, and that your favorable consideration of the same would place me under deeper obligations to your many kindnesses, and would be further evidence of the very friendly relations existing between the Government of China and that of the United States.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,