Mr. Wu Ting-fang to Mr. Hay.
Washington, August 3, 1900.
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I am very glad to learn that you have received official confirmation from Mr. Consul Fowler of the absolute genuineness of Mr. Conger’s much-discussed cipher telegram of a fortnight ago, not only because it is indisputable proof of the good faith of the Chinese officials concerned in the transmission of the message, which has been openly or tacitly impugned by some journals, especially those in Europe, but it thoroughly vindicates and justifies the stand you took in accepting from the beginning the authenticity of the dispatch, an act which exerted wide and strong influence in dispelling doubt and distrust from the minds of a large portion of the American public and which has been very deeply appreciated by me.
I thank you sincerely for your kind expression of appreciation of my earnest efforts to foster and preserve unbroken the amicable relations between my country and the United States, which it will ever be my pleasant duty to do.
Thanking you also for your good wishes for my personal comfort and hoping you will enjoy a well-earned rest, I am, etc.,