File No. 763.72/1987
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
[Received 3.40 p. m.]
2547. Your 1878, July 21 [20].1 It has been ascertained that no trace of any such official order can be found in the files of the Foreign Office nor in the columns of the North China Herald published in Shanghai; and further, that British representatives and consular officers were expressly instructed to abstain from giving any advice to merchants, etc., by a circular of February 15, 1904. It is considered extremely unlikely that any warning was issued, and if it was, it was certainly without authority of His Majesty’s Government, and indeed, directly contrary to their instructions, and was never reported to the Foreign Office.