Mr. Hay to Mr. Conger.
Washington, October 23, 1900.
Sir: I inclose for your information a copy of a letter from Mr. Thomas D. Holmes, stating that Major Siao, the Chinese military official of Kinhua, province of Chekiang, China, rescued him and his family and another family—eight persons in all—from certain death at the hands of a Chinese mob in that city, and that for this act of kindness Major Siao has been recalled to Hangchao and degraded.
The disgrace or other vindictive treatment of any official counseling friendly action toward foreigners, or aiding them in their perilous straits, is indirectly, but none the less effectively, a wrong to foreigners. A striking instance of this was seen in the decapitation of the two friendly members of the Tsungli Yamen and in the beheading of Chang Yen Hoon, formerly minister of China in Washington. Such acts not only deserve the severest censure, but persistence in their commission must inevitably impair, if not destroy, confidence in the protestations of the Chinese Government of its desire and purpose to punish the authors and abettors of antiforeign outrages.
I am, etc.,