Mr. Hay to Sir
Chentung Liang-Cheng.
Department of State,
Washington, May 31,
1904.
My Dear Mr. Minister: I send you herewith,
according to the promise made to Prince Pu Lun, a letter from the
President to His Majesty the Emperor of China, to be delivered by His
Imperial Highness.
Yours, faithfully,
[Inclosure.]
President Roosevelt to the Emperor of
China.
I have received with great satisfaction from the hands of His
Imperial Highness Prince Pu Lun, Your Majesty’s commissioner to the
International Exposition now being held in the city of St. Louis,
the letter which you were pleased to send me by him.
Your Majesty expressed the hope that the friendly relations which
have always existed between our respective countries may continually
grow closer. This is [Page 150] also
our earnest wish and the object of our constant care. Nothing can,
we think, more contribute to this most desirable end than the
extension of commercial relations between the peoples of China and
the United States. By them mutual confidence and prosperity will be
increased, the happiness of the people greatly advanced, and the
aims of benevolent government promoted.
It has given me much pleasure to receive in our national capital a
prince of your imperial house. Every facility has been afforded him
to carry out the mission which Your Majesty has intrusted to him,
and I hope that its result may powerfully tend to the lasting
advantage of our countries.
I have given this letter to His Imperial Highness Prince Pu Lun and
requested him to present it to Your Majesty, and have also asked him
to convey to you the assurances of my high regard and friendship and
my sincere wish that Your Majesty’s reign may long continue and that
the prosperity and happiness of China may continually increase.
Your good friend,
Theodore Roosevelt.
White House,
Washington
, , May 28.
