The Secretary of State to Minister Rockhill.
Washington, November 16, 1905.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 112, of the 4th ultimo, inclosing a copy of your note of the preceding day to the Chinese foreign office urging the pressing necessity of orders being given to the viceroy of the Liang Kuang Provinces which will compel him to take measures for the complete termination of the boycott in his jurisdiction.
Subsequent occurrences at Canton, the inefficiency of the viceroy’s measures against the boycott, and the murder of the missionaries at Lienchow, which is obviously a fruit of the lawlessness that engendered and keeps alive the boycott, all justify the protest you made in your note of October 3. Its timely warning was unheeded and now the Chinese Government is placed in the position of having to do what it should have done at the outset, and to bear the onus of taking the necessary steps too late to save the lives of peaceable Americans.
I am, etc.,