Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Hay.
Peking, China, July 26, 1901.
Sir: At a meeting of the diplomatic corps held to-day, the divergence of views between the British and Russian ministers over the reserve guaranty, which has delayed for so many weeks the settlement of the question of indemnity, was brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
The Russian minister made the following declaration:
The Russian Government is ready not to insist on the necessity of considering at the present moment the eventual raising of maritime import dues above 5 per cent as a reserve guaranty on the condition that, should the revenues assigned to the service of the bonds prove insufficient, the powers will proceed jointly and at once to study and to determine the measures necessary for making up the deficit.
The possibility of extending this study to the question to the increase of import dues should not be excluded, and, while not insisting at present on the reserve guaranty which it had proposed (the Russian Government) does not thereby express its acceptance of the declaration made by his excellency the British minister, which specified that an increase of import dues above 5 per cent should be entirely used for the reforms indicated by Sir Ernest Satow.
The British minister replied as follows:
I am ready to accept, in the name of my Government, the condition annexed to the declaration just made by his excellency the minister of Russia—that his Government does not insist at the present moment on the eventual raising of the import duties beyond 5 per cent as a reserve guaranty. I do this the more readily since it agrees with the proposal which I submitted to my colleagues in our last meeting.
As to the declaration which his excellency the Russian minister has just added, I [Page 284] am obliged to say that I consider it as a declaration coming only from the Government which makes it, and that I am not authorized to change anything in what I have already said concerning the reserve guaranty.
Mr. de Giers, the Russian minister, remarked on this that his declaration could apply not only to his Government, but to those others which might hold the same views.
The ministers of Japan, Belgium, and Austria having declared that their Governments agreed to the indemnity of 450,000,000 Haikwan taels, with rate of interest at 4 per cent, a note was ordered to be prepared, to be sent to the Chinese plenipotentiaries, embodying these conclusions. The conference furthermore agreed that, as the indemnity and interest were payable in gold, the 450,000,000 Haikwan taels should be converted into gold at the rate of exchange of April 1, 1901. The United States Treasury rate on that date was 1 Haikwan tael =$0.742 United States gold.
The question of the final protocol, in which the results of the negotiations are to be embodied, and in which are also to be incorporated all the details concerning the mode of payment of the indemnity and probably the arrangement for the creation of the Whangpu conservancy board and the regulations governing it, was also considered, and a committee directed to draft it.
The maintenance of the prohibition of the importation of arms was then taken up.
The British minister said that his Government thought the scheme suggested by the diplomatic corps difficult to carry out, and that furthermore it was contingent on legislation by the various powers, and that the Chinese Government could prohibit all importation of such articles and the maritime customs could be entrusted with the enforcement.
The Japanese minister shared these views, and added that his Government was of opinion that permission should be granted China to import the arms and ammunition necessary to the interior policing of the country.
The Austrian and Italian ministers were also in favor of a term of two years.
I stated to my colleagues the views contained in your telegram of the 29th instant. I greatly doubt whether any arrangement can be reached by the powers on this question beyond asking China to enforce the prohibition against herself—not a very satisfactory solution.
The Russian minister thought there were grave inconveniences to intrusting the prohibition of the importation of arms and ammunition to China itself, and that the measures suggested in the scheme submitted to the diplomatic corps were not too rigorous.
I have the honor, etc.,