Mr. Peirce to Mr. Hill.
St. Petersburg, September 26, 1900.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of September 21, 1900,1 a copy of which, together with my reply thereto of September 24, I append.
Immediately upon the receipt of your telegram I requested a special audience with Count Lamsdorff for the purpose of communicating it to him. Count Lamsdorff sent me word that he would receive me on Sunday, the 23d instant, at 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
Accordingly, at the appointed time I presented myself at the ministry and read to Count Lamsdorff, who understands and reads English, a [Page 376] copy of your telegram, leaving with him the copy as a memorandum of the interview. After reading the telegram I asked his excellency whether he had fully understood it or whether there was any point in the English version which he desired to have me make clear to him in French. He replied that it was perfectly clear, and that he believed he had fully understood it. I then said that, in instructing me to communicate the telegram, you had charged me to invite information from the Imperial Goverment in the three cases, and expressed the hope that he would communicate to me on the subject. He said that he would at once communicate the substance of the telegram to the Emperor, who is now in the Crimea, and ask for his instructions to that end.
I then asked whether his excellency had anything to say at that time which I could communicate to you as informal. He replied that his Government regards the plenipotentiary authority of Earl Li and Prince Ching as prima facie, and, for the present, sufficient upon which to open negotiations. It might develop later that their full powers are insufficient, but that, as at present advised, he sees no reason to call them in question.
He appeared to regret that the United States minister is not at present to be withdrawn from Pekin to Tientsin; but this regret was rather made evident by his manner of referring to the question than to any definite expression on his part, though he said that, in his opinion, Tientsin is a better place from which to conduct negotiations than Pekin. He states that if the Russian minister had not already left Pekin he would do so shortly.
In regard to the German circular to the powers, Count Lamsdorff’s opinion, as he stated it to me, appears to be in accord with that of the Government of the United States.
He considers that the authors of the crimes against international law in China had better be punished by the Chinese themselves, and that such punishment was essentially a subject to be determined in the negotiations, and should not be regarded as a necessary preliminary to such negotiations. * * *
Submitting the above report of my interview with Count Lamsdorff, I have the honor to be, sir,
Your obedient servant,
Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.