In witness whereof the undersigned, duly authorized thereto by their respective governments, have signed the present agreement. CLAUDE M. MACDONALD. PRINCE CH'ING, Senior Member of the Tsung-li Yamén. LIAO SHOU-HÊNG, President of Board of Punishments. Done at Peking in quadruplicate (four copies in English and four in Chinese) the 1st day of July in the year of our Lord 1898, being the 13th day of the 5th moon of the 24th year of Kuang-hsü. IDENTIC NOTES EXCHANGED BETWEEN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND RUSSIA WITH REGARD TO THEIR RESPECTIVE RAILWAY INTERESTS IN CHINA.1 April 28, 1899. Sir C. Scott to Count Mouravieff. The undersigned, British Ambassador, duly authorized to that effect, has the honour to make the following declaration to His Excellency Count Mouravieff, Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs. Great Britain and Russia, animated by a sincere desire to avoid in China all cause of conflict, on questions where their interests meet, and taking into consideration the economic and geographical gravitation of certain parts of that Empire, have agreed as follows: 1. Great Britain engages not to seek for her own account, or on behalf of British subjects or of others, any railway concessions to the north of the Great Wall of China, and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway concessions in that region supported by the Russian Government. 2. Russia, on her part, engages not to seek for her own account, or on behalf of Russian subjects or of others, any railway concessions in the basin of the Yangtze and not to obstruct, directly or indirectly, applications for railway concessions in that region supported by the British Government. The two contracting parties, having nowise in view to infringe in any way the sovereign rights of China or existing treaties, will not fail to 1 Rockhill, p. 183. communicate to the Chinese Government the present arrangement, which, by averting all cause of complications between them, is of a nature to consolidate peace in the Far East, and to serve the primordial interests of China herself. St. Petersburg, April 28, 1898. CHARLES S. SCOTT. Sir C. Scott to Count Mouravieff. In order to complete the notes exchanged this day respecting the partition of spheres for concessions for the construction and working of railways in China, it has been agreed to record in the present additional note the agreement arrived at with regard to the line ShanhaikuanNewchwang, for the construction of which a loan has been already contracted by the Chinese Government with the Shanghai-Hongkong Bank, acting on behalf of the British and Chinese Corporation. The general arrangement established by the above-mentioned notes is not to infringe in any way the rights acquired under the said loan contract, and the Chinese Government may appoint both an English engineer and an European accountant to supervise the construction of the line in question, and the expenditure of the money appropriated to it. But it remains understood that this fact cannot be taken as constituting a right of property or foreign control, and that the line in question is to remain a Chinese line, under the control of the Chinese Government, and cannot be mortgaged or alienated to a non-Chinese company. As regards the branch line from Siaoheishan to Sinminting, in addition to the aforesaid restrictions, it has been agreed that it is to be constructed by China herself, who may permit European not necessarily British engineers to periodically inspect it, and to verify and certify that the work is being properly executed. The present special agreement is naturally not to interfere in any way with the right of the Russian Government to support, if it thinks fit, applications of Russian subjects or establishments for concessions for railways, which, starting frora the main Manchurian line in a southwesterly direction, would traverse the region in which the Chinese line terminating at Sinminting and Newchwang is to be constructed. CHARLES S. SCOTT.2 St. Petersburg, April 28, 1899. 2 The same, mutatis mutandis, was sent the same day by Count Mouravieff, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, to Sir Charles Scott. JOINT NOTE SIGNED BY THE DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES AT PEKING OF GERMANY, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, BELGIUM, SPAIN, THE UNITED STATES, FRANCE, GREAT BRITAIN, ITALY, JAPAN, THE NETHERLANDS, AND RUSSIA, EMBODYING CONDITIONS FOR REESTABLISHMENT OF NORMAL RELATIONS WITH CHINA.1 Signed at Peking December 22, 1900; Handed to the Chinese Plenipotentiaries, Yi K'uang (Prince Ch'ing) and Li Hung-chang, on December 24, 1900. [TRANSLATION FROM FRENCH.] During the months of May, June, July, and August of the present year serious disturbances broke out in the northern provinces of China and crimes unprecedented in human history-crimes against the law of nations, against the laws of humanity, and against civilization were committed under peculiarly odious circumstances. The principal of these crimes were the following; 1. On the 20th of June His Excellency Baron von Ketteler, German Minister, proceeding to the Tsungli Yamen, was murdered while in the exercise of his official duties by soldiers of the regular army, acting under orders of their chiefs. 2. The same day the foreign legations were attacked and besieged. These attacks continued without intermission until the 14th of August, on which date the arrival of foreign troops put an end to them. These attacks were made by regular troops, who joined the Boxers, and who obeyed orders of the Court, emanating from the Imperial Palace. At the same time the Chinese Government officially declared by its representatives abroad that it guaranteed the security of the legations. 3. The 11th of June Mr. Sugiyama, Chancellor of the Legation of Japan, in the discharge of an official mission, was killed by regulars at the gates of the city. At Peking and in several provinces foreigners were murdered, tortured, or attacked by Boxers and regular troops, and only owed their safety to their determined resistance. Their establishments were pillaged and destroyed. 4. Foreign cemeteries, at Peking, especially, were desecrated, the graves opened, the remains scattered abroad. These events led the foreign powers to send their troops to China in order to protect the lives of their representatives and their nationals, and to restore order. During their 1 Rockhill. p. 63. march to Peking the allied forces met with the resistance of the Chinese armies and had to overcome it by force. China having recognized her responsibility, expressed her regrets, and manifested the desire to see an end put to the situation created by the disturbances referred to, the powers have decided to accede to her request on the irrevocable conditions enumerated below, which they deem indispensable to expiate the crimes committed and to prevent their recurrence: 1. (a) Dispatch to Berlin of an extraordinary mission, headed by an Imperial Prince, to express the regrets of His Majesty the Emperor of China, and of the Chinese Government, for the murder of His Excellency the late Baron von Ketteler, German Minister. (b) Erection on the place where the murder was committed of a commemorative monument suitable to the rank of the deceased, bearing an inscription in the Latin, German, and Chinese languages, expressing the regrets of the Emperor of China for the murder. 2. (a) The severest punishment in proportion to their crimes for the persons designated in the Imperial decree of September 25, 1900, and for those whom the representatives of the powers shall subsequently designate. (b) Suspension of all official examinations for five years in all the towns where foreigners have been massacred, or have been subjected to cruel treatment. 3. Honorable reparation shall be made by the Chinese Government to the Japanese Government for the murder of Mr. Sugiyama, Chancellor of the Japanese Legation. 4. An expiatory monument shall be erected by the Imperial Chinese Government in each of the foreign or international cemeteries which have been desecrated and in which the graves have been destroyed. 5. Maintenance, under conditions to be settled between the powers, of the prohibition of the importation of arms as well as of material used exclusively for the manufacturing of arms and ammunition. 6. Equitable indemnities for governments, societies, companies, and private individuals, as well as for Chinese who have suffered during the late events in person or in property in consequence of their being in the service of foreigners. China shall adopt financial measures acceptable to the powers for the purpose of guaranteeing the payment of said indemnities and the interest and amortization of the loans. 7. Right for each power to maintain a permanent guard for its legation and to put the legation quarter in a defensible condition. Chinese shall not have the right to reside in this quarter. 8. The Taku and other forts, which might impede free communication between Peking and the sea, shall be razed. 9. Right of military occupation of certain points, to be determined. by an understanding between the powers, for keeping open communication between the capital and the sea. 10. (a) The Chinese Government shall cause to be published during two years in all subprefectures an Imperial decree embodying: Perpetual prohibition, under pain of death, of membership in any antiforeign society; Enumeration of the punishments which shall have been inflicted on the guilty, together with the suspension of all official examinations in the towns where foreigners have been murdered or have been subjected to cruel treatment. (b) An Imperial decree shall be issued and published everywhere in the Empire declaring that all governors-general, governors, and provincial or local officials shall be responsible for order in their respective jurisdictions, and that whenever fresh antiforeign disturbances or any other treaty infractions occur, which are not forthwith suppressed and the guilty persons punished, they, the said officials, shall be immediately removed and forever prohibited from holding any office or honors. 11. The Chinese Government will undertake to negotiate the amendments to the treaties of commerce and navigation considered useful by the powers, and upon other subjects connected with commercial relations, with the object of facilitating them. 12. The Chinese Government shall undertake to reform the Office of Foreign Affairs and to modify the court ceremonial relative to the reception of foreign representatives in the manner which the powers shall indicate. Until the Chinese Government have complied with the above to the satisfaction of the powers, the undersigned can hold out no expectation that the occupation of Peking and the province of Chihli by the general forces can be brought to a conclusion. Peking, December 22, 1900. For Germany, For Austria-Hungary, For Belgium, For Spain, For United States of America, For France, A. MUMM. M. CZIKANN. B. J. DE COLOGAN. E. H. CONGER. S. PICHON. |