Count Cassini to Mr. Hay.

[Translation.]

Dear Mr. Hay: Having been since yesterday indisposed afresh, and it being impossible for me to leave the house, it becomes necessary for me to have recourse to the pen in order to lay before you a matter which has been made the subject of a telegram I have just received from Count Lamsdorff.

Information which has recently been received by the imperial ministry from Niuchwang is to the effect that the consul of the United States in that city is raising constant and irritating difficulties with the Russian authorities; that he is taking under his protection Chinese subjects of a more than doubtful reputation; that he refuses to recognize the competence of the Russian tribunals and of the Russian authority upon whom rest provisionally, during the occupation of the county, the responsibility for the maintenance of order and tranquillity. These facts, being in flagrant contradiction with the cordial assurances based upon the reciprocal confidence which I have had the honor to hear from your excellency’s lips on frequent occasions, and which I have hastened to bring to the knowledge of my Government, can not but painfully impress the Imperial Government, while, however, giving it the impression that they are the result of the personal and not very prudent activity of a consular agent little acquainted with the situation and with the excellent relations established upon a solid footing between our two Governments. Therefore I venture to hope, dear Mr. Hay, that, taking into consideration what I have communicated to you, you would be so kind as to furnish, as soon as possible, to the consul at Niuchwang explicit instructions to the end that he shall be careful to avoid acts and proceedings which are in absolute contradiction with all that I have seen and heard since I have been in this country.

Permit me to hope that you will complete your kindly intervention in this matter by enabling me to communicate your response, which I venture to hope will be entirely satisfactory, to Count Lamsdorff.

Be pleased to accept, etc.,

Cassini.