Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Hay.
Peking, China, May 25, 1901.
Sir: * * * My cablegram to you of the 22d informed you of the sudden change in the British Government’s proposals, and that the representatives of the powers had practically agreed to demand of China the full amount of the expenses incurred by their Governments, subject to their being finally closed for presentation to China at the end of the month of June. In other words, the sum of 450,000,000 taels is approximately the minimum of the demand they will make on China.
In my dispatch No. 92, of the 22d instant, I explained this last phase of the negotiations and gave an explanation of Great Britain’s repeated changes in her proposals. I may add that the British proposal to reduce the amount of the indemnity to £50,000,000, which I telegraphed you on April 26, was never submitted formally by Sir Ernest Satow to the conference.
The position of Germany on the question of the indemnity has, as I have advised you repeatedly, been most un compromising. The urgent necessity for Great Britain to maintain her entente with Germany in China is, of course, responsible for the numerous concessions she has recently made to German insistence on being paid the last cent of her expenses. The most remarkable of these concessions is found, however, in the British Government’s willingness to have the tariff on imports raised to an effective 5 per cent ad valorem, without compensating commercial advantages. * * *
It is true that the proposal of the United States to scale down the indemnity has not been met with the approval of a single one of the powers, but our insistence in the cause of moderation has unquestionably been instrumental in forcing them to limit their demands. Had it not been for our endeavors, China would, without a doubt, have been obliged to consent to infinitely harder terms than those which will be probably submitted. The American policy of moderation has had other distinctly beneficial results. * * *
The President’s policy of moderation brought about a revision of the lists of proscription, and has thus saved many persons, now known to be innocent, whose names had been placed thereon in the heat of the moment.
In numerous other ways have the United States been able to exercise a moderating influence in the councils of the powers, while still maintaining the concert which, clumsy as it undoubtedly is, is still, so long as it exists, a tolerable guarantee of the maintenance of Chinese integrity and of equal trade privileges for all the world. I firmly believe that we shall be still further able to vindicate in other ways the wise policy of the President during the remainder of the negotiations, and by it greatly benefit American interests in China.
I am, etc.,