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Excerpt from Report of William W. Rockhill, Late Commissioner to China, 1901: With Accompanying Documents I reached Shanghai on the 29th of August and proceeded at once to Peking, where I discussed with our minister, Mr. Conger, the situation and the steps he proposed taking to hasten the restoration of order and for the protection of American persons and property, and I was pleased to be able to report to you that I fully concurred with him in all the measures he had been and was advocating. After a brief stay at Peking I returned to Shanghai and then visited the Viceroy Liu K'un-yi at Nanking, and later the Viceroy Chang Chih-tung at Wu-chang, for the purpose of thanking them, in the name of the United States, for the perfect manner in which they and the other viceroys had maintained peace, and the friendly spirit they and their Provincial administrations were showing foreigners during these troublesome times. I wished also to ascertain their views on the question of the restoration of order and the return of His Majesty the Emperor to Peking. The courteous and friendly receptions given me by the two viceroys, and the personal relations which I was thus so fortunate as to establish, and which were kept up during the remainder of my mission in China, did not a little, I think, in the interest of peace and the common benefit of the two countries. After returning to Shanghai and conferring with the various American commercial and missionary bodies there, I left again for Peking, where you had directed me to proceed to act as counselor and adviser of the American minister in the negotiations then begun. I discharged this duty, and, I am pleased to say, always in perfect harmony with our minister, until the 23d of February of this year, when Mr. Conger, having obtained from you leave of absence with permission to visit the United States, I was appointed by the President, under telegraphic instructions from you, plenipotentiary to continue the negotiations on the part of the United States. In this capacity I acted until September 7, when the Final Protocol, embodying the results of the negotiations between the various powers and China, was signed. I then left for the United States and arrived at Washington on October 23. The different phases of the negotiations between the powers and China, which extended over a period of about fourteen months, are shown in detail in the correspondence of Mr. Conger and myself with the Department and also in the printed minutes of the various meetings of the conference at Peking. With these before you I shall not go over these questions again. I shall confine myself to summarizing the work of the United States in the conference. The circular note which you telegraphed on July 3, 1900, to our embassies in Europe and to our missions in Vienna, Brussels, Madrid, Tokyo, The Hague, and Lisbon defined the policy then already adopted by the United States in the settlement of affairs in China and from which they never departed. Bearing these instructions always in mind, the task of the agents of our Government in Peking was a comparatively easy one. Throughout the negotiations our object was to use the influence of our Government in the interest of justice and moderation and in a spirit of equal friendship to the powers negotiating jointly with us and the Chinese nation. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com