Embassy of the United States,
Rome, Italy, September 18, 1900.
No. 664.]
[Inclosure.—Informal memorandum
from the Italian foreign office in reply to Mr. Iddings’s
note of August 30, 1900, received on September
14.—Translation.]
The Italian Government returns thanks for the communication made
to it.
The Italian Government associated itself in the work, in common
with the other powers in China, with those same intentions which
obtained the adhesion of all the other governments, which it has
the satisfaction of seeing reaffirmed in the memorandum of the
United States. The Italian Government desires that the proper
moment for opening peace negotiations with the Chinese
Government may be hastened, which negotiations should give to
the powers, together with just compensation for damages
sustained by their citizens, the necessary guaranties for the
safety of foreigners and their free and peaceful competition in
commerce.
The Italian Government believes, as the United States believes,
that under the present circumstances the purposes which all the
powers have in view would be better subserved by prolonging
still for some time the international occupation of Pekin under
such conditions as the said powers might define. The Royal
Government is not able to conceal its apprehension that a sudden
and not sufficiently explained withdrawal of troops from Pekin
maybe interpreted by the Chinese Government and people as a sign
of weakness, and might revive the fanaticism of the rebels.
The Italian Government has always attached special importance to
the maintenance of harmony among the powers, considering harmony
as a necessary guaranty to prevent later complications and for
obtaining a real and lasting solution of the problem of
restoring order in China.
With this judgment the Italian Government, while waiting to learn
the decision of (the) powers, has expressed the opinion that the
commanders of the forces in China should be consulted upon the
situation of the troops in Pekin, because it appears to this
Government that military considerations may form a necessary
element to be regarded in connection with any later
decision.
In the actual state of the case this Government is firmly
convinced that an eventual diversity of views as to the most
opportune moment for ceasing to occupy Pekin would not imply a
difference as to the ends which the governments are following in
common accord in the Chinese Empire, and expresses the desire
that those governments which have accepted in principle the
withdrawal of the troops should not hurry the execution of the
same, in order to give a chance for a later understanding among
the powers.
Rome, September 12,
1900.