Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Hay.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that in pursuance of your telegraphic instructions of the 23d instant to Mr. Conger and myself, the diplomatic representatives and the Chinese peace commissioners were duly informed that I would take charge of the United States’ interests in the pending negotiations. On the 24th I entered upon my duties.
To-day the diplomatic representatives in conference decided upon the boundaries of the area which they deem necessary for the diplomatic quarter—the Chinese Government having agreed, in principle, to concede one to the treaty powers for that purpose. They based their demands on the report of the mixed military commission, copy of which was sent you in Mr. Conger’s No. 536, of the 16th instant, with a plan of the proposed quarter. A note will be at once addressed to the Chinese plenipotentiaries stating the demands of the powers in the matter. Some slight modifications may be made in the western portion of the area, if the Chinese too strenuously refuse all that is demanded in that direction.
While agreeing with my colleagues in the demand for this tract of land, I called their attention to the fact that the area in it allotted to the United States was, from every point of view, inadequate to the actual requirements of my Government for the accommodation of a legation with a guard, in case it should, as I hoped, decide to build one. The land, whether private or governmental property, in the legation quarter was seized by the various representatives here immediately [Page 94] after the siege, without any regard to their actual or eventual wants and with the intention of, later on, disposing of it to their nationals as they might see fit. The representative of the United States not having followed this course, we can but extend over the few lots of ground along the face of the wall of the Tartar City, which you can see by reference to the plan.
I informed my colleagues that I only agreed to demanding the present diplomatic quarter on the understanding that later on they would agree to consider the proposition of my Government asking for China to make in Peking an international concession and put the city on the footing of a treaty port.
The property seized by the German, French, Italian, and Austrian-Hungarian legations included all that occupied until the siege by Sir Robert Hart and the Foreign Maritime Customs staff, at which time it was entirely destroyed. I took advantage of the discussion being brought on this subject by the reading of a letter of Sir Robert to the British minister against the practical confiscation of his property, to express the profound regret which my Government and people would feel on learning that any of the powers should have found it necessary under any circumstances to dispossess or in any way interfere with the Maritime Customs, a cosmopolitan institution in which we all take equal and just pride. Its distinguished head, to whose efforts more than to any other living man is due the present flourishing condition of foreign trade in China and the introduction of many western methods and improvements, deserves, we think, every consideration from the whole western world. The British minister spoke on the same lines, referring to the great services of Sir Robert Hart, not only to commerce, but to diplomacy.
The other diplomatic representatives expressed their high appreciation of the Customs service, but I have little hope that any of the seized property will be returned to the customs, though another tract within the diplomatic quarter and on the eastern side is to be offered in lieu thereof.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,