Mr. Hay to Mr. Conger .

No. 183.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch, No. 171, of March 24 last, on the subject of the extension of the general foreign settlement and of the French settlement at Shanghai, and reporting that you have agreed with your British and German colleagues to send each a note to the Tsungli Yamen urgently requesting an adjustment of the matter of the extension of the general settlement as proposed by the several consuls-general.

The Department approves the note that you have accordingly written to the Yamen on the subject, a copy of which accompanies your dispatch.

Since the receipt of your No. 171 a telegram has reached the Department from Consul-General Goodnow, dated the 3d ultimo, reporting that the extension of the “international settlement” at Shanghai had been granted satisfactorily, to which a reply was made by the Department on the 11th ultimo, that it waited the receipt of his confirmatory dispatch, giving the particulars, before expressing an opinion thereon.

With reference to the French concession I inclose herewith, for your information, a copy of a note1 that I have this day addressed to the French ambassador at Washington on the subject.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.
  1. Printed under France, p. 283.