File No. 6351/44.
Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.
Peking, August 28, 1907.
Sir: In further reference to my dispatch No. 707, of the 22d instant, informing you of the Chinese Government having protested to the French and Japanese Governments against certain portions of the agreement signed by these powers on June 10 last, I have the honor to inform you that I asked yesterday His Excellency Lü Hai-huan, minister of the Wai-wu Pu, if his Government had received explanations from the Governments of France and Japan satisfactorily removing any apprehension it might have as to the meaning and scope of the agreement in question.
He informed me that on Friday last (23d) the French chargé d’affaires had handed him a note from his Government explaining most fully and satisfactorily the agreement, and stating that nothing in it was to be understood as derogatory to the majesty of China or infringing its sovereign rights.
His Excellency Lü did not mention having received like assurance from the Japanese chargé d’affaires, or that he had been to the Wai-wu Pu to offer any. I know, however, that the Japanese chargé d’affaires called at the Wai-wu Pu at the same time as the French, and presumably for the same purpose.
I have, etc.,