Foreign Relations of the United States, 1901, Appendix, Affairs in China, Report of William W. Rockhill, Late Commissioner to China, with Accompanying Documents

Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Hay.

No. 116.]

Commissioner of the United States to China,
Peking, China, June 13, 1901.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for your information, copies of the correspondence exchanged between the representatives of the powers and the Chinese plenipotentiaries concerning the carrying out of the terms of Article VII of the Joint Note, which provided for the creation of a defensible diplomatic quarter in Peking, within the limits of which the Chinese were not to reside. (Inclosures 1–5.)

As the question now stands, the Chinese Government has agreed to cede the right of occupancy of all the ground owned by it or its subjects within the limits indicated to the powers collectively, to form a defensible diplomatic quarter, undertaking, furthermore, to compensate its subjects whom it may have to expropriate for that purpose.

The representatives of the powers directly after the occupation of the city by the foreign forces reached an agreement among themselves as to the ground each required for the extension and defense of their respective legation or for the erection of a new one, the legally vested rights of foreign private owners within the limits being, of course, recognized.

The action of the representative of the United States was reported to you by Mr. Conger in his dispatch No. 438, of November 3, 1900, and No. 558, of March 4, 1901.

In the former dispatch Mr. Conger says that he presumes that under our policy the land set aside in the aforesaid arrangement between the foreign representatives, if taken by the United States, “will be paid for either to the Chinese owners or credited upon account against the Chinese Government for indemnity.”

A commission composed of interpreters of legations and delegates appointed by the Chinese plenipotentiaries was organized at the request of the foreign representatives (see inclosures 6–11), and has been for some time past occupied in examining and recording the proofs of ownership of Chinese subjects to land within the diplomatic quarter, and to whom the Chinese Government is to pay an indemnity for their property.

The United States might, if it sees fit, credit the, Chinese Government with such sums as it may ultimately pay under the decision of this commission to Chinese property owners within the limits of our section of the diplomatic quarter. This method seems preferable to buying directly from the present owners of this ground, which course seems, at present at least, very difficult to follow. The former plan appears also to conform to your instruction to me that the sum demanded of China ($25,000,000) covered all claims of whatever nature.

In his dispatch No. 558, of March 4 last, Mr. Conger says that—

he has designated tracts in the vicinity of the legation’s present residence which will be ample for the purposes of a new legation. * * * It is, however, probable that in the portion of the quarter allotted to the United States legation there will be a few desirable lots beyond the requirements of the legation, which, of course, citizens of the United States have the first right to purchase.

Unless the Chinese Government makes a complete cession or lease in perpetuity to the power sof this quarter of the city, the latter, it seems to me, can not put it to any use but that specified—legations and the purposes of their defense. Should any one of them at any time decide not to occupy the whole of the section of the quarter set aside by mutual arrangement between the powers for its use, the property must revert to the other powers for their use, the title always remaining in the Chinese Government. Under the present arrangement the United States Government might allow occupancy to its nationals of a portion of its section for such purposes as it might deem necessary or expedient. I note, however, the Department’s views on this subject contained in the last paragraph of its instructions to me—No. 23, of May 3, 1901.

For the above reasons it would seem that the legation is wrong in supposing that citizens of the United States have the right to buy such lots in the American section as may not be needed for its use.

I respectfully request that this legation be instructed at as early a date as possible as to your views on the following points:

• First. Will the United States Government credit the Chinese Government on the amount of the indemnity with the amount paid by it to its expropriated subjects within our section of the quarter, or does it wish to buy directly from the owners?
• Second. Does the Government wish that a formal cession should be made by China to it of the ground comprised in our section of the diplomatic quarter?
• Third. What disposition do you wish made of the land within our section not necessary for legation purposes?

I am, etc.,

W. W. Rockhill.

[Inclosure 1.—Translation.]

Mr. de Cologan to the Chinese Plenipotentiaries.

Peking, March 1, 1901.

Highness and Excellency: Article VII of the Joint Note accepted by His Majesty the Emperor of China grants to each power the right to organize a permanent guard for its legation and to make defensible the diplomatic quarter, in which Chinese shall not have the right to reside.

In your memorandum of the 16th of January you were pleased to ask us concerning this subject where would commence and where would finish the diplomatic quarter.

You add: “The Government offices and public buildings which may happen to be situated within it should be left outside its limits. This quarter should be delimitated with us, so that we may ask the inhabitants to leave it.” I have the honor to inform you that the representatives of the powers have fixed the limits of the diplomatic quarter by the following lines, as is indicated in the annexed plan:¹

To the west line a, b, c, d, drawn from the foot of the wall; to the north line d, e, f, drawn along the base of the wall of the Imperial City, and the line between the letters f and g; to the east line g, h, drawn to the east of the Ketteler strasse (Great court of the Hata-men); to the south line h, a, drawn along the outside of the wall of the Tartar City and following the bastions.

The representatives of the powers have decided, furthermore, that you should be informed that the governmental and public buildings on ground within these limits should be transferred elsewhere.

I reserve to myself to inform you later, in the name of my colleagues, of the compensations which will be proposed for the Chinese who must leave this quarter and whose lots will be expropriated by the various legations.

I avail myself of this opportunity, etc.,

B. J. de Cologan.

[Inclosure 2.]

Translation of a memorandum presented by Prince Ching and Li Hung Chang, conjointly, on the subject of the legation quarter, dated March 2, 1901.

On the 1st instant we received a communication from the doyen, accompanied by a plan, stating that the foreign representatives had decided upon the area to be set apart as the legation quarter, and denned the four boundaries of the same; that the public offices and buildings therein situated must be transferred elsewhere, and that the question of compensating the Chinese inhabitants thereof, who must also remove themselves and who are to be expropriated, is reserved for a subsequent communication.

As regards the Chinese residing in this quarter who have to remove themselves elsewhere, it is, in the interest of justice and equity, imperative that later on regulations for indemnifying them in respect of their removal, expenses, and the value of their land be drawn up.

In the memorandum of February 5, which we handed to you, we asked for particulars as to where the legation quarter commenced and where it ended. We stated that all offices and buildings situated therein ought to be considered part of the same, and pointed out the necessity of having a joint delimitation of its boundaries.

A careful perusal, however, of the plan accompanying the Doyen’s communication shows us that the Tang Tzu, important ground where the Emperor is wont to sacrifice, has been included within the limits, which also embrace the following public offices and buildings:

The Imperial clan Court, the Boards of civil office, revenue, rites, war and works, the Mongolian Superintendency, the Hanlin College, the Imperial supervisorate of instruction, the Court of the Imperial stud and of state ceremonial, the Imperial Board of astronomy, the Carriage park, the Residence for tributary envoys, and the College devoted to the students of the Hanlin bachelors. All the above-named places are essential to the carrying on of public business.

Ever since Peking was made the capital the various public offices have been established inside the Cheng Yang gate (the Chien Men), on the right and left of the Imperial city. They are in immediate proximity to and form a circle around the same.

Not only does the fact of their being adjacent (to the palace) facilitate the dispatch of public business; it is a question intimately affecting the prestige and the dignity of the state. This arrangement has remained without change throughout the Yuan and Ming dynasties, a period of now more than five hundred years. The magnitude of the building operations and the number of public servants, high and low, have also to be considered, and were a transfer insisted upon there would be no other site available. Moreover, the Tang Tzu and these various public offices and buildings are comparatively far away from the legations. Regarded from a legation point of view, their exclusion from the legation quarter would have no harmful results, whereas their inclusion therein would deprive the capital city of all that goes to constitute a capital. The action proposed involves consequences of no trifling import to the dignity of the state and the hope of the people.

Were we lightly and inconsiderately to acquiesce therein it is to be feared that their majesties the Empress Dowager and Emperor would, on their return, visit us with censure of the severest kind. It is of a truth really impossible for us to take so heavy a load upon our shoulders.

It is accordingly incumbent upon us to pray yon in the terms of our former memorandum to agree to consider these buildings as not included in the legation quarter.

To accede to our request would afford ample evidence that the foreign ministers plenipotentiary are in sympathy with the sincere desire to strengthen friendly relations which animates our Government.

That you will do so is of a truth most fervently hoped by us.

[Inclosure 3.—Translation.]

Imperial and Royal Legation of Austria-Hungary,
Peking, April 25, 1901.

Mr. Minister and Dear Dean: The commission on the diplomatic quarter has the honor to inform you of the results of the conferences which it had on the 22d of April with the Chinese plenipotentiaries to consider the questions brought up in the draft note which they handed us on the 2d of last March.

The commission in the first place informed the Chinese plenipotentiaries that the diplomatic corps had decided to insist on the boundaries for the legation quarters indicated in the letter which you sent them on the 1st of March, but that it was ready to make a concession as to the western boundary, on condition that the Chinese Government should no longer insist on the other, objections made in the above-mentioned note.

This concession would consist in bringing back the line a b to within a certain distance of Gazelee road, so as to leave the Chinese Government the four ministries situated between Gazelee road and the Chien Men, to wit, the bureau of the Imperial’ household and the ministries of the interior, of finance, and of rites. We did not fail to add that this concession could only be made in case of the Chinese Government undertaking not to allow any native dwellings on the ground situated between Gazelee road and the Chien Men, with the exception of those of the Chinese servants of the legations, who were to be expropriated from their former dwellings in the diplomatic quarter.

The Chinese plenipotentiaries would prefer to leave this ground entirely free of any buildings with the exception of the four above-mentioned yamens, but they would be ready to leave the settlement of these details to the mixed commission of interpreters and Chinese delegates.

Prince Ching insisted very much that we should give up the idea of having demolished the yellow wall of the Imperial palace situated to the north of the British legation, as it would destroy the symmetry of the palace. All our objections did not succeed in making him accept the decision of the diplomatic corps on this point, but finally he seemed ready to recommend to the Court the project of substituting an iron railing for this wall. The commission undertook to submit this proposition to the diplomatic corps.

The opposition of Prince Ching to the tearing down of a part of the Bureau of Mongol affairs, so as to make the glacis on the north, was also very strong. He finished, however, by giving in in favor of the military exigencies of the case which we submitted to him, but asked that the prohibition of buildings, or of depositing building materials on the glacis, should extend to foreigners as well as to natives, and that the ownership of the ground on that part of the glacis situated to the north of the street should remain vested in the Chinese, and that the Chinese police should be permitted to exercise its duties on the glacis, while observing the regulations elaborated by the diplomatic corps.

The most serious objections were made to us concerning the Tang Tzu (ancestral temple), as the relinquishment of this spot to foreigners would be considered, according to Prince Ching, as a serious blow to the dignity of the dynasty.

The Prince, proposed to give in exchange to the Italian legation the ground belonging to the customs, which the inspector-in-chief had declared he was ready to cede if this legation would give up the Tang Tzu. We observed that the two buildings in the north part of this inclosure would have to be pulled down for necessity of defense, but the prince insisted on his proposition, being satisfied to occupy that part of the Tang Tzu which would remain to the south of the wall.

We deemed it necessary to submit this proposition to the diplomatic corps, while asking at the same time the Prince to be pleased to consult the Court and to propose to it to transfer the temple of ancestors entirely outside the diplomatic quarter, as this seemed much more compatible with the dignity of the dynasty. The delimitation of the diplomatic quarter on the east side caused no objection, and as to the wall of the Tartar city, the prince finally agreed that the portion extending between the Hata Men and the Chien Men should remain occupied by the legations, only demanding that houses should not be built on it, and that nothing should be done to change its present aspect. This we considered ourselves justified in promising.

Begging you to communicate the above to the diplomatic corps, we avail ourselves of this opportunity, etc.,

• M. C. Czikann.
• S. Pichon.
• Salvago Raggi.

[Inclosure 4.—Translation.]

The Chinese Plenipotentiaries to Mr. de Cologan.

Peking, May 11, 1901.

Your Excellency: On the 22d of April we had a conference with the French, Austrian, and Italian plenipotentiaries, at which we discussed the question of the legation quarter in Peking. With the exception of the Tang Tzu (Imperial ancestral hall), which place has been surrendered by decree of His Majesty the Emperor—of which fact we have duly notified the Italian minister, Marquis Salvago Raggi, by note—the question of the four boundaries and other matters agreed upon, we now write to you about officially, so that a record by both the foreign representatives and ourselves may be kept.

1. The eastern boundary is 10 chang (100 feet) from the Tsung Wen gate (Hata Men). The ramp to the west of the gate for ascending the wall is not included within the legation quarter.

2. The northern boundary extends to the Ping Pu Chieh (Board of War street). On the west side of this street there are the yamens of the Imperial clan court, the Board of civil office, the Board of revenue, and the Board of rites. These yamens are to be handed over to the Chinese Government. At the rear of these yamens a wall, not very high, is to be built. At the side of the yamens there are houses of Chinese, many of which have been burned, while others remain intact. These are to be entirely taken down and the ground converted into vacant land. Neither Chinese nor foreigners will be allowed to use this land to build houses thereon. Chinese servants employed in the foreign legations, who originally had houses in this section, will be given other land on which they can build residential places.

3. The boundary to the south extends to the city wall. The wall adjoining the legations is to be patrolled by a guard of police dispatched for that purpose by the various legations, but no houses are to be erected on the wall.

4. The northern boundary extends to 80 meters north of the Tung Chang-an street. The boundary walls of the foreign legations are to be erected 15 chang (150 feet) south of the Tung Chang-an street. The houses on the land from the boundary walls of the legations to the point north of the Tung Chang-an street are to be pulled down and the place converted into vacant ground. The Imperial city wall, however, is not to be disturbed. No houses, in the future, will be allowed to be erected on said vacant ground, either by Chinese or foreigners. The Tung Chang-an street is to remain open, as a public road, to carts and horses as before. The Chinese Government will establish police stations there and employ policemen to patrol the street.

The above four boundaries and other matters decided upon were arranged verbally at the meeting on the day in question.

We have the honor, therefore, to address this communication to your excellency, requesting you in turn to communicate same to your colleagues, so that they may place same on file. We also beg that your excellency will favor us with a reply.

[Inclosure 5.—Translation.]

M. de Cologan to the Chinese plenipotentiaries.

Peking, May 28, 1901.

Highness and Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the letter which your highness and your excellency were pleased to send me on the 11th of May, and in which you confirm the arrangements concerning the limits of the future diplomatic quarter agreed upon between you and the commission charged by the representatives of the foreign powers to settle these questions. My colleagues have learned with satisfaction that you give up the Tang-tzu (Imperial ancestral temple) in favor of the Italian legation and that you affirm your intention of complying also with the other demands which have been made of you concerning these questions.

They have, nevertheless, directed me to define more clearly certain points which in your letter do not seem sufficiently clearly set forth so as to prevent any misunderstanding in the future:

(1) As to the eastern boundary, which not only in my letter of the 1st of March, but also in the conference which the commission had with your highness, was fixed upon and settled at Ketteler street (Ha-ta-men street). The 100 feet to the west of the gate Ha-ta-men, Ching-men mentioned in your letter, only indicates the extreme limit of our occupation on the wall of the Tartar city, and have nothing to do with the boundary on the street.

(2) As to the western boundary, my honorable colleagues have found your declarations satisfactory:

(a) That this boundary shall start from the Chien-men Gate and run along the line a 6 as far as the street of the legations, shall follow along the north of that street to a distance 40 meters to the west of the street of the ministries (Gaselee road), where it shall run to the north until it reaches the outside wall of the Imperial palace;

(b) That on the ground situated between Gaselee road and the Chien-men square all Chinese houses shall be demolished, and that there shall not be thereon any other buildings than the four yamens, to wit, the Bureau of the Imperial household and the Ministries of the interior, of finance, and of rites; and

(c) That separate lots shall be given to the Chinese in the service of the legations who had originally houses within the quarter.

I must nevertheless recall to your highness and your excellency that his excellency the minister of Russia, as he has had the honor to inform you, has given up the two yamens which adjoin his lot only on the condition that the Government shall give to the Catholic mission in exchange for a piece of ground which belongs to it and which is within the extension of the Russian legation, another lot of the same value situated within the Tartar city, to be chosen in agreement with Mgr. Favier.

(3) It is understood that the southern limit of the quarter is marked by a line drawn along the base of the wall, but on the south side of it, so that the part of the wall corresponding to the diplomatic quarter shall be comprised within it. Therefore the representatives of the powers, as the commission stated to you, reserve to themselves the right to maintain on it police stations, while pledging themselves not to put upon it constructions which may change the exterior aspect of the wall.

(4) Your declaration that the limit to the north shall be at a distance of 80 meters north of the Chang-an street (Viale d’Italia, Stewart street), which shall remain a public highway, open to horses and wagons, has been found to agree with the demands of the foreign representatives. I deem it proper to add that in the conference of the above-mentioned commission with your highness it was agreed that the Chinese police should be allowed to perform its duties on this public highway, but that it should comply with regulations to be drawn up by the diplomatic corps.

It is understood that the police stations which you propose to establish shall not be built to the south of the above-mentioned boundary line. This zone, in agreement with our stipulations, is to be left without any constructions on it.

We have also to recall to you that the foreign representatives had asked that the part of the wall facing the British legation should be pulled down, and so as to conciliate this request with your wishes the commission had begged your highness and your excellency to recommend to the court the plan of substituting an iron railing for this wall. It is so as to facilitate to the Chinese Government the pulling down of this wall that his excellency the British minister has agreed to relinquish the two yamens facing his lot.

I avail myself of this opportunity, etc.,

B. J. de Cologan.

[Inclosure 6.—Translation.]

M. de Cologan to the Chinese plenipotentiaries.

Peking, March 15, 1901.

Highness and Excellency: As I informed you in my letter dated March 1, the foreign plenipotentiaries, considering the carrying out of Article VII of the Joint Note, have resolved to ask the Chinese Government to indemnify all the Chinese property Owners whose expulsion from the diplomatic quarter has been decided upon.

To that end they have named a committee charged with making an inquiry into the validity of property titles and the value of ground. So as to carry out this inquest with all necessary guaranties for the interested parties, the foreign plenipotentiaries think it desirable to have added to this committee a Chinese official who will assist it with his experience.

I have consequently the honor to request your highness and your excellency to be pleased to designate a delegate for the above purpose and to inform me of his name, so that he may be invited to meet them at the proper time.

I avail myself, etc.,

B. J. de Cologan.

[Inclosure 7.—Translation.]

The Chinese plenipotentiaries to M. de Cologan.

Peking, March 16, 1901.

Your Excellency: We had the honor to receive, on the 15th instant, your communication with reference to the execution of Article VII of the Joint Note. [Quotes in extenso doyen’s note of March 15, 1901.]

In your communication of the 1st instant, transmitting a plan of the proposed legation quarter, you made certain remarks on the subject of the Chinese residents within its limits.

On receipt thereof we prepared and sent you a memorandum, in which we stated that in the interest of justice steps must be taken to make good to the Chinese residents in the legation quarter who would be called upon to move elsewhere the value of their land and their expenses of removal.

Now, what we meant thereby was that the plenipotentiaries of the powers themselves ought, as a matter of course, to take steps to provide any sums necessary to make good such claims. It is a fixed and abiding principle that he who appropriates land for his own use must pay for the same and that he who calls on them to remove their dwellings must make good the expenses of such removal. In the present instance, as the legations wish to extend their boundaries, such Chinese as are resident within these limits must move elsewhere, and as in your former communication it is stated that such area is reserved for the use of the legations, it undoubtedly follows that the legations are responsible for the payment of the value of the land thus appropriated. Further, as the legations had called upon the present residents to quit, they put these people to the expense of taking down their dwellings and reerecting them, a process which is accompanied by inevitable loss of property and damage of various kinds. These losses being the result of orders to quit, the reimbursement thereof ought naturally also to be made by the legations concerned.

It is now, however, proposed that the Chinese Government be asked to provide funds for this purpose. Taking all the circumstances into consideration, we can hardly bring ourselves to believe that a proposal of this kind is in accordance with equity.

As regards the request in the communication under acknowledgment that an officer be appointed to assist in the examination of title deeds and assessment of values, this is, of a truth, a just and proper method of procedure and affords evidence of a really sincere desire to preserve the interests of the proprietor from injury.

It is our duty in addressing to you this reply to beg you to consult with the plenipotentiaries of the powers regarding the question of refunding to the Chinese owners the value of their land and expenses of removal, with a view to securing an acknowledgment of the just principle that each legation should itself take steps to provide the funds necessary for the purpose.

When we shall have received your answer we will take into consideration the appointment of a delegate to join the committee elected by the diplomatic body.

[Inclosure 8.—Translation.]

The Dean of the diplomatic corps to the Chinese plenipotentiaries.

Peking, March 19, 1901.

Your Highness and Your Excellency: In a note under date of the 15th of March I had the honor to request you to designate a delegate to examine, with a commission named for that purpose by the representatives of the powers, the validity of deeds to real estate, owned by Chinese within the limits of the future diplomatic quarter. I informed yon that this commission and the delegate you will choose would also have for duty to fix the value of the lots to be expropriated, so as to settle the damages which the Imperial Government would have to grant the owners of them.

You answered me on the 16th of this month that it belonged to the legations to indemnify the Chinese who would be expropriated by them. You pretended in that communication that the pulling down and destruction of buildings which has been done in the diplomatic quarter were imputable to the legations, as was also the moving away from it of the inhabitants who have been obliged to abandon their dwellings.

The events of last year are still too recent for it to be possible to represent things in this light.

Why did the Emperor of China, in accepting the Joint Note, grant to the legations the right to put themselves in a defensive state, unless it was because they had been invested and besieged for two months, surrounded by regulars and Boxers, who pulled down several of the legations and destroyed by fire the whole quarter surrounding them?

Who ignores that when the allied troops entered into Peking the whole section of the city which the powers demand to establish their diplomatic missions in had been mined and burned and was only a heap of ruins—the work of Boxers and regulars?

It is the Chinese Government, declared responsible for these events by the powers, and which had recognized itself as such in accepting their conditions; it is for it to bear the consequences of its conduct, and to supply to the diplomatic agents the means of defense it has rendered necessary in failing to keep its first obligations. Among these means of defense figure in first line the removing of the houses which served as a place of refuge to those attacking the legations and the walls of which have shielded their attacks against the representatives of the powers.

As, however, it would be unjust to deprive of their dwellings Chinese who have no responsibility in the affair, and who would as a result be victims of an event which they could not prevent, the diplomatic corps proposes to you to fix with it the reasonable damages which you will have to pay the inhabitants who can show good titles to their property.

The diplomatic corps can only insist on its demand, and my colleagues have directed me to beg you to designate as soon as possible the delegate who will put himself in communication with the commission which they have appointed.

B. J. de Cologan.

[Inclosure 9.—Translation.]

The Chinese plenipotentiaries to M. de Cologan.

Peking, March 23, 1901.

Your Excellency: On the 29th day of the first moon, of the 27th year of Kuang Hsu (March 19, 1901), we received your dispatch informing us that the diplomatic corps could only adhere to its proposition for us to take part with it in establishing the equitable indemnities which China would have to give to the expropriated inhabitants who could produce satisfactory title deeds to property, and that the diplomatic corps have charged you to request us to designate, as soon as possible, a delegate who should put himself in communication with the commission appointed by it.

In reply, we would note that, according to international law, war is an act between two nations, in which the populations are not concerned; that the victorious government has a right to seize public property, but not the right of seizing private property; that, nevertheless, the victorious country can occupy for its use private property, but naturally on the condition to pay the value of it to the former owner.

Your dispatch admits also that there is cause for indemnifying the former owner for the value of his private property, but it declares that it should be paid by the Chinese, and that is not just. It is perfectly clear that he who uses a piece of ground should pay the price of this ground, as we have explained in detail in our previous reply.

Furthermore, article 7 of the protocol of peace negotiations only stipulated the right for each power to establish a guard for its legation and to put in a state of defense the diplomatic quarter, and it was in no wise stated in it that it was possible to extend at one’s will the limits, or that they could, according to their convenience, encroach on the property of the people.

If, therefore, the legations occupy for their use the houses and the ground belonging to Chinese subjects and situated within the limits of the quarter actually laid out, it would naturally be proper, in compliance with equity, that the price should be paid by the legations.

Nevertheless, desirous as we, the prince and minister, are to treat in a satisfactory manner the various articles of the convention, in case the diplomatic corps should consent to promptly reach an understanding with us in conformity with the propositions of the memorandum which we have addressed to it previously on the question of the restitution of the Tang-tzu and various important yamens, it would not be difficult for us to endeavor to accede to the desire of the diplomatic corps in promising to pay the price of the loss and in designating an able delegate to whom would be intrusted the question of regulating in a satisfactory manner, in conjunction with the commission, the examination of title deeds and various questions.

Such is the answer which we send you, Monsieur the dean, requesting you to kindly bring it to the knowledge of the diplomatic corps.

[Inclosure 10.—Translation.]

M. de Cologan to the Chinese plenipotentiaries.

Peking, March 30, 1901.

Highness and Excellency: The representatives of the powers take note of the declarations contained in your dispatch of the 23d of this month, by which you agree, in principle, to indemnify the Chinese who shall be expropriated from the diplomatic quarter, and to designate a delegate to discuss this question with the committee appointed for that purpose by the diplomatic corps.

The considerations which you have laid down, however, in your dispatch, before reaching this conclusion, can not be accepted. It is not, as you seem to believe, by right of conquest that the foreign ministers have seized private property situated within the limits of the quarter to be ceded under the terms of Article VII of the Joint Note accepted by His Majesty the Emperor of China. It is because the annexation of these properties is indispensable for the future defense of the diplomatic quarter, and because they were used as a refuge by the regulars and Boxers who attacked the legations for two months.

While noting, as is proper, the passage of your dispatch in which you admit that it is lawful for the representatives of the powers to dispose of the public buildings within the limits fixed by my letter of the 1st of March to your highness and your excellency, and while willing to seek with you a compromise on this point, my colleagues call your attention to the fact that a state of war does not exist and has never existed during last year between China and the governments whose plenipotentiaries they are.

What happened was an attempted general massacre of foreigners and of the members of the diplomatic body by Boxers and Chinese regulars, obeying orders emanating from the Imperial palace. As a result, the Government of His Majesty the Emperor of China admitted its liability for this attempt, and declared itself ready to grant both reparation and the guarantee deemed indispensable by the powers. The erection of a quarter provided with means of defense against the recurrence of a criminal attempt like the one which only failed through the arrival of the allied troops at Peking is one of these guarantees. The Chinese Government owes it entirely to the foreign governments and to their ministers in China without any compensation on their part.

I have the honor, in consequence, to reaffirm to your highness and your excellency the necessity of designating at once a delegate to enter into relations on this subject with the committee to negotiate the question with you.

I avail myself, etc.,

B. J. de Cologan.

[Inclosure 11.—Translation.]

The Chinese plenipotentiaries to M. de Cologan.

Peking, April (?), 1901.
(Received April 5, 1901.)

Your Excellency: On the 1st of April we had the honor to receive your excellency’s dispatch wherein you requested us to at once designate a delegate to examine, with a commission named for that purpose by the representatives of the powers, the validity of deeds to real estate owned by Chinese within the limits of the future diplomatic quarter; that this commission and the delegates chosen would also have to fix the amount to be paid for the lots expropriated, etc.

In reply we have the honor to inform your excellency that we have designated Jui Liang, secretary of the Tsung-li Yamen, and Lien Fang, a taotai awaiting selection for office, to confer with the-commission named by the foreign representatives. As this matter concerns interests in the locality named, the gendarmerie and governor of Peking have also selected military and civil officers (the latter the magistrate of Ta Hsing district) to act with the above-named officers, in the hope that the matter may be well arranged on a proper basis.

As in duty bound, we address this communication to your excellency, and beg that you will, in turn, make known its contents to the foreign representatives, so that they may act accordingly.

1. The plan referred to is attached to the Final Protocol (see p. —).