Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State.
Peking, China, January 21, 1906.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your instruction No. 76, of December 9, 1905, inclosing copy of a letter from Mr. T. W. Sutterle, managing director of the American Chinese Company, respecting his statements that the so-called experimental mining regulations now in force in China are in direct contradiction to the spirit of Article VII of the treaty of October 8, 1903; and directing me to bring the matter to the attention of the Chinese Government and request that the regulations be amended in accordance with treaty obligations.
[Page 264]In my dispatches No. 153, of November 24, and No. 177, of December 23, 1905,a I had the honor to transmit to you copies of notes sent by me to the Chinese foreign office protesting against said mining regulations and subsequent ones.
I beg that the department will instruct me on what other points it desires me to request the Chinese Government to amend these regulations, as my knowledge of the matter is not sufficient for me to venture much beyond the points indicated as objectionable by the Secretary of the Interior in his letter to the Secretary of State under date of August 27, 1904 (Foreign Relations, 1904, pp. 161–167), and especially the inclosure thereto which I used in my note to the Chinese foreign office of November 29, 1905, above referred to.
I have also to report that the British and German ministers here are using, I believe, their best efforts to get the Chinese Government to recast its mining regulations in the spirit of the British treaty of 1902 and ours of 1903. I will keep you informed as to the results of their efforts.
I have the honor, etc.,