File No. 2413/146–148.

Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.

[Extract.]
No. 966.]

Sir: In further reference to your telegraphic instruction of May 25, 1908, directing me to inform the Chinese Government that Congress had passed an act authorizing the President to modify the indemnity bond given the United States by China under the provisions of Article VI of the Peking final protocol of September 7, 1901, and remit to China, as an act of friendship, a portion of it, I have the honor to inclose copy of my note to the Prince of Ch’ing, his reply thereto and the supplementary note outlining the scheme of the Imperial Government for the creation of an educational mission in the United States.

I have, etc.,

W. W. Rockhill.
[Inclosure.]

Minister Rockhill to the Prince of Ch’ing.

Your Highness: It is with great satisfaction that I have the honor to inform your highness, under direction of the Secretary of State of the United States, that a bill has passed the Congress of the United States authorizing the President to modify the indemnity bond given the United States by China under the provisions of Article VI of the final protocol of September 7, 1901, from $24,440,000 United States gold currency to $13,655,492.29, with interest at 4 per cent per annum. Of this amount $2,000,000 are held pending the result of hearings on private claims presented to the Court of Claims of the United States within one year. Any balance remaining after such adjudication is also to be returned to the Chinese Government in such manner as the Secretary of State shall decide.

The President is further authorized under the bill to remit to China the remainder of the indemnity as an act of friendship, such payments and remissions to be made at such times and in such a manner as he may deem just.

I am also directed by the Secretary of State to request the Imperial Government kindly to favor him with its views as to the time and manner of the remissions.

Trusting that your imperial highness will favor me with an early reply to communicate to my Government, I avail, etc.

W. W. Rockhill.
[Inclosure 2.—Translation.]

The Prince of Ch’ing to Minister Rockhill.

Your Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of July 11, informing me that you had been directed by the Secretary of State to notify me that a bill has passed the Congress of the United States [Page 68] authorizing the President to modify the indemnity bond given the United States by China under the provision of Article VI of the final protocol of September 7, 1901, from $24,440,000 United States gold currency, to $13,655,492.29, with interest at 4 per cent per annum. Of this amount $2,000,000 are held pending the result of hearings on private claims presented to the Court of Claims of the United States within one year. Any balance remaining after such adjudication is also to be returned to the Chinese Government in such manner as the Secretary of State shall decide. The President is further authorized under the bill to remit to China the remainder of the indenmity as an act of friendship, such payments to be made at such times and in such a manner as he may deem just. As directed by the Secretary of State, your excellency requests the Imperial Government kindly to favor him with its views as to the time and manner of the remissions, and asks an early reply to communicate to your excellency’s Government.

On reading this dispatch I was profoundly impressed with the justice and great friendliness of the American Government, and wish to express our sincerest thanks.

Concerning the time and manner of the return to China of the amounts to be remitted, the Imperial Government has no wishes to express in the matter. It relies implicitly on the friendly intentions of the United States Government, and is convinced that it will adopt such measures as are best calculated to attain the end it has in view.

The Imperial Government, wishing to give expression to the high value it places on the friendship of the United States, finds in its present action a favorable opportunity for doing so. Mindful of the desire recently expressed by the President of the United States to promote the coming of Chinese students to the United States to take courses in the schools and higher educational institutions of the country, and convinced by the happy results of past experience of the great value to China of education in American schools, the Imperial Government has the honor to state that it is its intention to send henceforth yearly to the United States a considerable number of students there to receive their education. The board of foreign affairs will confer with the American minister in Peking concerning the elaboration of plans for the carrying out of the intention of the Imperial Government.

A necessary dispatch.

[Seal of the Wai Wu Pu.]

[Inclosure 3.]

The Foreign Office to Minister Rockhill.

Referring to the dispatch just sent to your excellency regarding sending students to America, it has now been determined that from the year when the return of the indemnity begins 100 students shall be sent to America every year for four years, so that 400 students may be in America by the fourth year. From the fifth year and throughout the period of the indemnity payments a minimum of 50 students will be sent each year.

As the number of students will be very great there will be difficulty in making suitable arrangements for them. Therefore in the matter of choosing them, as well as in the matter of providing suitable homes for them in America and selecting the schools which they are to enter we hope to have your advice and assistance. The details of our scheme will have to be elaborated later, but we take this occasion to state the general features of our plan and ask you to inform the American Government of it. We sincerely hope that the American Government will render us assistance in the matter.

Wishing you all prosperity,

  • Prince of Ch’ing.
  • Na T’ung.
  • Yuan Shih-k’ai.
  • Lien Fang.
  • Liang Tun-yen.