Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Hay.
Peking, China, July 3, 1901.
Sir: The diplomatic corps held a meeting to-day to consider (1) a new plan of amortization of the indemnity debts, (2) the proposition submitted by me on the 8th of June last that further negotiations concerning the settlement of the indemnities should be transferred to The Hague tribunal, and (3) the transfer of the local administration of Peking to the Chinese authorities, and other pending questions.
The amortization scheme and the details given by the German minister concerning it will shortly be printed, and I will transmit copies to you as soon as received.
It was agreed that the Chinese plenipotentiaries should be informed that their troops could approach to within 20 li of Peking, but the date on which said troops would be allowed to enter the city was not stated. It will, I suppose, be only after the evacuation by the expeditionary forces. It was also agreed to issue a proclamation in the name of the powers reciting the events which have brought about the occupation by the foreign forces of the province, and the conditions under which they now evacuate it.
The Russian minister stated that his Government accepted the two commercial compensations asked for by me in consideration of our agreeing to the raising of the tariff on imports to 5 per cent effective; it also accepted as a mode of payment of the indemnity 4 per cent bonds at par, but on condition that all the powers did likewise; if any power asked special advantages for itself his Government would also ask for them. This latter, of course, refers to the reservation made by the Japanese Government concerning its inability to accept without a loss 4 per cent bonds at par. The objections of the Japanese Government were communicated to you in my No. 123, of the 22d ultimo.
[Page 256]The question of the currency in which the indemnity is to be asked of China was then taken up. Most of the representatives have formal instructions to insist that the bonds given them shall be in the gold currency of their respective countries. This, of course, will be impossible, as the indemnity is to be asked without details or explanations. It seems to me that it should be calculated in Haikwan taels at a rate to be determined.
The question of the payment of private claims was then considered. The German representative was in favor of China contracting a special loan for this purpose, so that they could be paid off immediately in cash, as his Government had informed him that it could not undertake to negotiate the bonds paid it on account of private claims. This scheme did not meet with general favor. I stated that the United States would see to the payment of the claims of its own citizens out of the amount paid it as an indemnity by China. The French minister made a similar declaration.
I then stated to the diplomatic corps that nearly a month ago I suggested to them the advisability of transferring future negotiations concerning the indemnity to The Hague tribunal; that to enable them to get instructions from their Governments regarding the matter I had not formally called the matter up since the 8th of June, and I trusted they were now in a position to give me their views on the subject, so 1 could communicate them to my Government. I referred to the difficulties which still beset our way; the fact that we had not as yet reached even a formal agreement as to the amount of the indemnity to be asked of China; that the question of interest also divided us, and that innumerable questions were cropping up daily, all of which tended to demonstrate that the suggestion made by the United States was probably the only one which could insure a settlement of this complicated matter. I said that my Government was willing and desirous that either the whole question should be submitted to The Hague tribunal, or, in case that could not be agreed upon, such portions thereof as it seemed impossible to settle here.
I was surprised to find that, with the exception of the British minister, none of the representatives were in a position to speak on the subject. I stated that the proposal of the United States was not a new one, that it had been before the conference for five months, and that I anticipated that it had received due consideration. I shall avail myself of any opportunity which may hereafter present itself to bring the subject again before them.
The British minister said that he had received instructions on the subject from his Government, but as his colleagues had not heard from theirs, he would communicate his to me privately. In substance the British Government deems it either too late to submit many of the questions connected with the indemnity to arbitration, or is assured that such reference will be opposed by some of the other powers. It thinks, however, that the matter of the distribution of the indemnity might properly be submitted to The Hague conference.
The opposition of the British Government to the Russian proposal that the tariff on imports should be raised in the event of payments on account of the indemnity not being regularly made still blocks the way to Russia’s acceptance of 450,000,000 taels as the lump sum to be asked of China, and also to her agreeing to the revenues to be assigned [Page 257] for the purposes of payment on account of interest. How long this difficulty may last I have no means of knowing. * * *
Altogether, the present outlook for a prompt solution of the indemnity and financial questions is not by any means as bright as it was when I telegraphed you on the 15th of last month.
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I am, etc.,