Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1923, Volume I

393.1123 Lincheng/223

The Minister in China (Schurman) to the Secretary of State

Peking, August 14, 1923.
[Received September 7.]

No. 7732

Sir: With reference to my telegram No. 279, of August 10, 12 noon,¹⁰ regarding the delivery of the note addressed by the Diplomatic Body to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, containing the demands of the Diplomatic Body as a result of the attack upon foreigners at Lincheng, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy and translation of the note in question.

The text of this note has been published in the press.

I have [etc.]

Jacob Gould Schurman

[Enclosure—Translation]

The Diplomatic Corps at Peking to the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs (Wellington Koo)

Peking, August 10, 1923.

Mr. Minister: In continuation of previous communications addressed to the Chinese Government relative to the Lincheng incident (the attack on an express train on the Tientsin-Pukow line during the night of the 5th–6th May, 1923, in the course of which foreigners were carried into captivity by the brigands), the Diplomatic Body has the honour to notify the Government above mentioned of the decisions which it has reached concerning:—

(1) The damages which the Diplomatic Body proposes to claim from the Chinese Government for the victims of the outrage;

(2) The guarantees which the Diplomatic Body considers to be necessary for the future; insistence on the responsibility of the military governors and other authorities; measures for the protection of the railways;

(3) Sanctions. Punishment of the officials or employees of the railway who were guilty in this matter of neglect of duty or of complicity with the brigands.

I. Damages

The Diplomatic Body claims damages from the Chinese Government for the foreigners who were the victims of the Lincheng incident.

These damages will be classified into the following categories:

(A) Compensation for loss of baggage and objects which were either stolen or lost at the time of the attack on the train and for individual medical attention rendered to the prisoners during the period of their detention; these will be based on the sworn statements of the persons concerned in the presence of their respective Consuls.

(B) Compensation for the loss of life and of liberty and for sufferings and indignities undergone by all the foreign travelers while in the hands of the brigands; $20,000 Mex. for the foreign traveler who was killed on May 6th at the time of the attack on the train by the brigands; $500 Mex. per prisoner per day for the first three days of detention, May 6th, 7th and 8th; $100 Mex. per prisoner and per day during the week commencing May 9th; $150 Mex. per prisoner and per day during week commencing May 16th; $200 Mex. per prisoner and per day during the week commencing May 23rd; $250 Mex. per prisoner and per day during the week commencing May 30th; $300 Mex. per prisoner and per day during the week commencing June 6th.

(C) Compensation to cover reimbursement of the amounts expended in supplying relief to the prisoners.

In formulating the above mentioned demands for definite indemnities (A, B and C) the Diplomatic Corps declares that the foreign victims of the Lincheng incident are entitled to receive from the Chinese Government supplementary indemnities varying according to individual cases as compensation for bodily injuries, medical attention, loss of earnings and temporary or permanent decrease of earning capacity caused by their captivity or in consequence thereof. Individual demands will be examined and formulated in each case by the Legation of the person interested.

The Diplomatic Corps endorses the demands presented or to be presented separately by several Legations for damages suffered by foreign prisoners of brigands in Honan from June to December, 1922, thereby indicating clearly that the Diplomatic Body has been notified of these demands and approves them in principle.

II. Guarantees for the Future

The Diplomatic Body notes with great regret that the brigands infest not only the province of Shantung but all or a part of the provinces of Chihli, Kiangsu, Honan, Anhui and other provinces and that the means employed at present to suppress them are notoriously inadequate. The first duty of the Chinese Government being to maintain order and protect foreigners and Chinese against violent acts and outrages on the part of the brigands, the Diplomatic Body invites the Chinese Government to take, through the agency of the inspecting generals, military governors, etc., immediate steps to cooperate in organizing with the help of their best troops vigorous operations against the bandits. The Diplomatic Body will eventually instruct the Military Attachés of the foreign legations to follow these operations and report to them.

a. responsibility of the military governors and other provincial or local authorities

The final protocol for the settlement of the disturbances of 1900¹¹ (Article X and Annex 16) declares that all the Governors General, Governors, and provincial or local officials are bound to insure in the most efficacious way the protection of foreigners and are responsible for the maintenance of order in the event of new antiforeign disturbances, within the limits of their districts.

It expressly prescribes the following penalties for those who should fail in this duty:

“If, owing to indifference, or rather of voluntary tolerance, great calamities take place, or if treaties should be violated and no immediate steps taken to make reparation or inflict punishment, the Governors-general, Governors, and the provincial or local Officials responsible will be removed and shall not be reappointed to other offices in other provinces, or hope to be reinstated or receive any further honors.”

Brigandage having become a grave menace to the lives, property and rights of foreigners in China, the Diplomatic Body will keep itself accurately informed with regard to this state of unrest and for that purpose it has decided on the despatch in case of need of its own representatives into the provinces infested by the brigands in order to examine and report upon the local situation. When it appears to the Diplomatic Body that a Military Governor or officer commanding troops or that a provincial or local official has failed or is failing in his duty of providing protection for foreigners in conformity with the Clauses of the Protocol of 1901 above mentioned, the Diplomatic Body will demand the immediate imposition on the offender of the penalties prescribed therein without prejudice to such additional punishments, fines, etc., as the circumstances may call for.

The Diplomatic Body moreover reserves the right to order the exclusion of these officers or officials from the protection of the foreign concessions or settlements in the treaty ports.

b. measures for protecting the railways

The Lincheng incident has clearly shown the danger which foreign travelers at present run on the Tientsin-Pukow Line, which is one of the principal means of communication in China, and on the Chinese railways generally.

From the inquiries which the Diplomatic Body undertook and from the information which it has collected, particularly from the International Military Commission, which it despatched to Lincheng, it transpires that the present system, of protection of the Chinese railways is insufficient to insure in an efficient manner the protection of the lines.

The Diplomatic Body considers that reforms are necessary and that it is its duty to aid the Chinese Government to carry these out, by collaborating with them in the task.

The reforms which the Diplomatic Body has in view would consist in the reorganization of the forces of the Special Chinese police who would be placed under the supervision of foreign officers and entrusted with the protection of the Chinese railways.

The Diplomatic Body reserves the right, after a more elaborate study of the question, of presenting as soon as possible to the Chinese Government the scheme which it will have adopted.

III. Sanctions

The Diplomatic Body requires from the Chinese Government the punishment of those civil or military officials and employees of the Tientsin-Pukow railway whose complicity with the bandits may be established or whose conduct may be found to have facilitated the crime either by negligence or lack of foresight before, or by inactivity during, the incident or whose attitude may have been found to have contributed to the prolongation of the detention of the foreign prisoners.

Without entering into the details of all the prosecutions to be undertaken in connection with the Lincheng incident, the Diplomatic Body, after having made a careful study of the matter by means of international commissions both civil and military and by other methods, finds it necessary to request the Chinese Government to inflict upon a certain number of persons the punishments which it has determined. The demands of the Diplomatic Body are as follows:—

1. That General T’ien Chung-yu, Military Governor of Shantung, who, as Military Governor of Shantung, was directly and wholly responsible for the maintenance of order and the protection of foreigners in his province, and, as Commander-in-Chief of all the troops in his province, was responsible for the payment, discipline and conduct of his troops, should be summarily dismissed from his present duties, that he shall never henceforth be entrusted with any official duty or mission on Chinese territory and that he should henceforth receive no new honor.

2. That General Ho Feng-yu, Defense Commissioner at Yenchowfu and Commander of the 6th Mixed Brigade of Shantung, who, as Defense Commissioner at Yenchowfu, had responsibilities in Southern Shantung similar to those of General Tien for the entire province and who, after General Tien, was responsible for the continuation of brigandage in southern Shantung, shall be dismissed from his duties and shall never again be appointed to any military command whatsoever.

3. That General Chang Wen-t’ang, Commander of the Tientsin-Pukow railway police, responsible for the discipline and conduct of the police along the permanent way and on the trains of the said railway, shall be dismissed from his duties and shall never again be entrusted with any police duty on railways.

4. That Chao Te-chao, the officer in command of the guard on the train which was attacked on May 6th, responsible for the defence of the train, who was not in uniform at the time of the attack and who took no action and allowed himself to be captured by the bandits, should be dismissed from his present duties and shall never again be employed in a police capacity.

In conformity with the provisions of the last paragraph of Article II–A above, the Diplomatic Body reserves the right to themselves to order the exclusion of these four officers from the protection of the foreign concessions and settlements in the Treaty Ports. The punishment of certain officers, however, does not adequately satisfy the just claims of the Diplomatic Body.

The attack by brigands on the train from Pukow to Peking, the capture of foreign travelers, the length of their captivity, the measures which had to be resorted to to obtain their release, have proved to the world that foreigners do not enjoy in China the guarantees of safety to which they are entitled. The actual sanction of the Lincheng incident should be found in a strict respect by the Chinese Government and all authorities in China for the rights of foreigners and for the treaties in force.

The Diplomatic Body has firmly determined to guard closely and to maintain by all measures in its power the defense of these rights and the application of those treaties which were solemnly confirmed at the time of the final establishment of the Republic of China, by the declaration communicated to the Legation[s] on October 6, 1913, prior to the publication on the 10th of the same month.¹²

Before terminating this note, the Diplomatic Corps draws the attention of the Chinese Government to brigandage in China which in its present state constitutes a grave danger for the whole country as well as for the rights and interests of foreigners.

The Diplomatic Body has received admissions that the Chinese Government were aware of the existence and recent development of brigandage in China in the official notifications addressed by the latter to the members of the Diplomatic Body respecting the insecurity of certain districts from which the Waichiaopu desired on that account to exclude foreigners from those districts.

The Chinese Government has now recently been warned that these notifications will be only considered as valid for a limited period and the Diplomatic Body hereby declares that henceforth they will consider these notifications as being official recognitions on the part of the Chinese Government of the existence of brigandage in the districts mentioned and all renewals of the said notifications after the fixed time limit as being official admissions on the part of the Chinese Government of their failure to suppress the brigandage in these same districts where they had denied its existence.

The Diplomatic Body aims at suppression of brigandage in China because brigandage threatens the rights and interests of the foreigners under their care. But the Chinese no less than the foreigners suffer from the evils of brigandage and when the Diplomatic Body asks that by the suppression of brigandage foreigners should be guaranteed security in China it is in fact asking that the Chinese should also be guaranteed security in their own country.

The recent development of brigandage with its evil consequences is not always caused by reason of the lack of military forces; there are at the present time in China more soldiers under arms than in any other country in the world. But these soldiers do not suppress the brigandage either because, not being paid, they refuse to make any efforts and even fraternize with the bandits or, as is generally the case, because the best of them are otherwise employed. As long as the Chinese Government allows the best disciplined troops in China to devote themselves to those civil wars which perpetually afflict one part or another of this great country the national or provincial armies will be diverted from their true task. They will more than any one else minister to the misery and sufferings of the Chinese people instead of acting as their defenders against the outrages and depredations of the bandits.

If the Government of China continues to authorize or to tolerate these abuses, if they do not set themselves resolutely to repress the brigandage which threatens the rights and interests of foreigners in China, the Diplomatic Body will be obliged to consider what further steps should be taken to protect the lives, the property, the rights and interests of foreigners in a country which although it enjoys the rights and privileges accorded to members of the great family of nations has shown itself incapable of fulfilling even the most fundamental of the duties which are inseparably connected with the rights and privileges of membership.

The Diplomatic Body desires the Chinese Government to understand its intention to obtain in reparation for the Lincheng incident the indemnities, guarantees and sanctions enumerated above.

Accept [etc.]

• J. B. de Freitas
• W. J. Oudendijk
• J. A. Barnet
• Johan Michelet
• Robert Everts
• Le Marquis de Dosfuentes
• Jacob Gould Schurman
• A. Boyé
• A. de Fleuriau
• V. Cerruti
• Ronald Macleay
• K. Yoshizawa
• C. Bonde
• H. H. Schroeder
• G. de Bulhōes
• Juan B. Saldaña

For the Mexican Ministers

10. Not printed.
11. Foreign Relations, 1901, Appendix (Affairs in China), p. 312.
12. See despatch no. 1052, Oct. 13, 1913, from the Chargé in China, Foreign Relations, 1913, p. 135.