Mr. Hay to Mr. Conger.

No. 246.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your 312 and 316, of January 15 and 29 last, respectively, in reference to the missionary troubles in the province of Shantung. Their subject-matter has had the careful consideration of the Department.

It is a matter of regret that the representations made by you to the Tsungli Yamen in June of last year concerning the punishment of the ringleaders in the antiforeign cases at Chichou and other localities should not have received the attention their importance deserves.

The demands made in your note of January 18 to the Tsungli Yamen (inclosure 1, dispatch 316) are approved in general terms, and it is hoped that you will follow them up by other and stronger considerations and oral representations until complete satisfaction is obtained.

In connection with the identic note agreed upon with your colleagues of France, Germany, and Great Britain, and sent by you to the yamen on January 21 (inclosure 3, dispatch No. 316), while the Department finds no objection to the general terms of this paper, it would have preferred if you had made separate representation on the question instead of the mode adopted, as the position of the United States in relation to China makes it expedient that, while circumstances may sometimes require that it act on lines similar to those other treaty powers follow, it should do so singly and without the cooperation of other powers.

In previous dispatches you referred to the possibility of the so-called “Boxer Association” having been, at least in one case, attacked by the native Christians. In your more recent dispatches no further reference is made to the subject. But the Department feels a certain apprehension lest the cases as reported by the American missionaries have not been sufficiently inquired into to establish beyond all doubt the rights and wrongs in these cases, and it is therefore unable, with only your dispatches to guide it, to give you definite instructions as to their further prosecution.

However, as these lawless associations in the province of Shantung have distinctly declared their purpose to be the extermination of foreigners and interference with the free exercise of Christian religion, you are instructed to represent in the strongest possible terms to the Chinese Government the necessity of its taking immediate and radical measures for the suppression of these societies and for the protection of Americans residing in the disturbed district, and to insure to the native converts the free and peaceable exercise of their religion, assured to them under treaty and by numerous imperial decrees.

In submitting this to the yamen you will avail yourself of every opportunity to impress upon it that this Government, by the recent assurances which it has obtained from the various great powers holding leased territory or areas of influence in China, concerning freedom of trade in said regions and the maintenance therein of China’s rights of sovereignty, has obtained thereby a renewed assurance of the policy of the treaty powers not to interfere with the integrity of the Chinese Empire. * * *

Your predecessor has on numerous occasions, especially within the last five years, called the serious attention of the Pekin Government [Page 112] to the concern with which the United States views the dilatoriness that Government has so frequently shown in suppressing antiforeign movements in China and punishing all those directly or remotely involved in them, and more especially the high provincial authorities who are always directly responsible to the Throne for their occurrence. The views of this Government on this subject were more particularly submitted to the Tsungli Yamen by Mr. Denby in his note of September 21, 1896.1

You should not fail to impress these views on the yamen, and to inform it that this Government is more determined than ever to see them carried out, not only in the interest of our citizens and their rights, but for the unquestionable benefit of China itself.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.