Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1900

Mr. Hay to Mr. Choate.

[Circular—Telegram.—Paraphrase.]²

Department of State,
July 18, 1900.

(In view of request of Viceroys presented to the President yesterday by the Chinese minister that Tientsin be not destroyed, the President has instructed the United States officers in China that nothing but military necessity would justify destruction of city, and hoped that no such necessity might arise.)

Hay.

2. Also sent to Berlin, Paris, and St. Petersburg.