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. Conger.
Washington, February 10, 1900.
Sir: Referring to instruction No. 221 of the 8th ultimo in relation to the unlawful punishment of Chinese employees of an American citizen in the consular district of Chinkiang by a Chinese chief of police, I inclose herewith for your further information a copy of a second dispatch from the United States consul at Chinkiang on the subject.
This dispatch appears to bear out the justice of instruction No. 221, wherein you were directed to obtain due reprobation of the offense and punishment of the offender.
I am, etc.,
Mr. Martin to Mr. Hill.
Chinkiang, December 14, 1899.
Sir: In despatch No. 49, dated November 18, 1899, I had the honor to report to you the case of a Chinese chief of police in this city taking a young Chinese accountant in the employ of D. A. Emery, an American merchant at this port, and flogging him with bamboos, giving him 1,300 blows.
I now send you herein a further report of the case together with the cause that led up to it, and also the governor’s answer to my demands.
I have transmitted the case to Mr. E. H. Conger, United States minister at Pekin, and requested him to press my demands for a reparation of insult by sending the chief of police here to Chinkiang, and degrading him from rank.
On November 20, 1899, the acting magistrate from the district of Yang-hu, by the name of Liu, who was formerly chief of police at this port, together with the acting magistrate of this district Tan-tu, and the taotai’s foreign deputy called on me. Said Acting Magistrate Liu told me he had been sent as the representative of the governor of his province to inform me that the governor, desiring to fulfill the taotai’s promise to me, had put this chief of police, Yang Sze Chen, on a boat to return him to Chinkiang, but he became so ill the governor ordered him (Liu) to proceed to Chinkiang and tell me of the fact, and to say he-would comply with my request and degrade Yang Sze Chen at Soochow, as he was too ill to come to Chinkiang. My answer was, I did not believe in his illness, and to say to the governor that we would send a foreign doctor to see if he was ill. He did not regard it as necessary, and said he had simply reported what he was told to. I then informed him that I would give them until Wednesday, November 29, to send me an answer whether he would be returned to Chinkiang in the near future or not; that I had never seen the man. They, the officials, had allowed him to escape before I returned. Some of them were cognizant of his going and did nothing to prevent it. That the question was a very serious one. Here was a minor official who willfully, after warning by his Chinese friends, had bid defiance to the treaty entered into by the Chinese Government and the United States Government, and entered a foreign hong, took a man against whom there is absolutely no charge and put a cangue on his neck, simply because he could not get the man he wanted; and that when D. A. Emery, his employer, heard of it, and sent his office boy and clerk with his card to this police with the message, “This man works for me, release him; if you want any of my employees at any time, secure them through my consul,” he no sooner receives the message than he orders his runners to beat the messenger (the other office boy then ran away, leaving this messenger alone). At first they refused. The chief of police then stepped out from his desk and beat him himself, afterwards making the runners continue until 1,300 blows were given to this young man, who was guilty of nothing but delivering his master’s message, the only master he had ever worked for, and that in his office, ever since he was a small boy. The two officials of this city admitted what I said was true. The acting magistrate of this district, Tan-tu, then exclaimed, “I will go to Soochow and make a full report of the consul’s statement to the governor,”
[Page 400]Wednesday, the 29th of November, Taotai Ch’ang of this city, Liu acting magistrate of Yang-hu, and the taotai’s deputy again called on me.
The taotai informed me the acting magistrate whom he sent to report my demand to the governor informed him the governor would degrade Yang Sze Chen at Soochow, but would not return him to Chinkiang, and urged me not to write to the Department about it, but simply inform the minister the case was settled.
My answer was he must be returned to Chinkiang and degraded. He can not be punished at all, you say, until he is degraded. Bring him here, degrade him, and let him apologize, and that would end the matter. He answered he was powerless to do it, and for two and one-half hours begged me to call it settled, as the flogged men had been returned to their homes with an escort, and that they did not consider the man, Yang Sze Chen, had committed a crime. This I firmly refused, and said I must transmit the case to you, and we would see if a small police officer could bid defiance to our treaty rights and be protected by his superiors; that they knew the case was just and lenient. I was asking for no indemnity, but simply punishment. Then, to my astonishment, on the morning of December 1, 1899, I received the following from Consul-General Goodnow:
“Viceroy Liu to Consul-General Goodnow.
“Nankin, November 7, 1899.
“Re trouble in Chinkiang and Consul Martin.
“I am in receipt of your dispatch with a letter from St. John’s College, thanking me for the loan of old rifles.
“Yesterday I received a telegram from the taotai of Chinkiang informing me about the case of an official, ‘Yang,’ in charge of the native police, and I find that this Mr. Yang cangued and bambooed a person holding official rank, also a merchant, which was not the right thing to do, and for which he (Mr. Yang) desires to be blamed, and he will be dealt with according to Chinese law.
“Chang-cong-hman and Yu-Chih-ping being Chinese subjects, the local officials must deal justly with them and give them protection.
“An American merchant, Emery, for the sake of a little gain makes them out to be (or acknowledges them as) his employees, and induced Mr. Martin, the consul, to act as figurehead to recover damages, etc.
“Such proceedings will do injury to business, for which reason I informed you about this matter, and would ask you to request Consul Martin not to believe a one-sided story, and that this matter should be justly settled.”
This statement of the viceroy is a tissue of errors. With “the man of rank” we have nothing to do. (By the way, he was a silk merchant.)
The two men we speak of were “Chang-cong-hman, a shroff of D. A. Emery, whom he dragged away because he could not produce a man the police asked for, and the office accountant, Yu-chih-ping, who was flogged almost to death for bringing a foreigner’s card and asking for the release of Chang-cong-hman. I have sent the above to our minister at Pekin with the following:
“Mr. Conger, this is a clear, just case. All I have above said is the absolute facts, not denied to me by a single official here.
“This young man who was so unmercilessly flogged I have visited. His wounds I have seen. A doctor of the China Inland Mission Hospital attends him. Twenty-six days have elapsed since the flogging. While he is getting better, he is still unable to attend to business.
“It seems to me absolutely necessary for our standing here that the lenient demand I have made be complied with to the letter. That is, Yang Sze Chen be brought to Chinkiang, degraded, and thus rendered ineligible to hold office, and he be made to apologize to the master of the boy he whipped.
“I hope you will secure the fulfillment of this, my most urgent request.
“If Yang Sze Chen is not punished here at Chinkiang they will feel they can ignore my request or demand at will. Even if they degrade him at Soochow, it will be for bambooing a man of rank, a case with which we have nothing to do, thus making it a Chinese case, so it will appear they ignored the foreign consul completely.”
I have, etc.,
Mr. Martin to Mr. Conger.
Sir: I have just received the following from the taotai of this city:
“Chinkiang Customs Taotai CNang to Hon. Wm. Martin, United States Consul.
“Sir: In the matter of a communication regarding the Chinkiang chief of police, Yang’s canguing and beating the United States merchant’s employees, Chang Chung Hsuan, and the other.
“I have the honor to inform you that I received a telegram from the provincial judge ordering Yang’s return to Soochow. Then I telegraphed to him requesting Yang’s return to Chinkiang in company with an officer, but he has not come.
“As you insisted that Yang must be returned to Chinkiang before any settlement of the matter can be talked of, I again deputed the Tan-tu magistrate, Mr. Wong, to proceed to Soochow to report this case to the governor and ask for instructions. I also complied with your request and reported the same to the governor. All these are recorded.
“I have now received instructions from the governor as follows:
“‘Yang had gone beyond his authority in the canguing and whipping case; his action was reckless, but those who were cangued and beaten are Chinese subjects, and as a Chinese official erroneously punished them the matter should therefore be treated according to Chinese law.
“‘As Yang is now in the capital (Soochow), it is not necessary to return him to Chinkiang. He can be degraded at the capital (Soochow) as at Chinkiang.
“‘The governor will unite with the viceroy in memorializing upon the Throne for his degradation.
“‘Trusting the consul might be forthwith informed,’ I have the honor to transmit the above.
“The paragraph which says ‘As you insisted on the return of Yang before any settlement of the matter can be talked of’ is not correct.
“I told them to say to the governor I insisted on his return to Chinkiang, his degradation here, and his apology to the boy’s master.
“The other paragraph, which says, ‘Those who were cangued and beaten are Chinese subjects, and as a Chinese official erroneously punished them the matter should therefore be treated according to Chinese law.’
“You see he absolutely ignores the insult of entering an American hong, and proposes to do so to the end.
“I have, etc.,
“Wm. Martin, Consul.”
This dispatch, together with dispatch No. 49, constitutes a complete record of the case.
Respectfully, etc.,