GROSVENOR, Chargé d’Affaires for Great Britain to the yamên, November 21, 1883

Foreign ministers to the yamên.

The undersigned representatives of the United States, Germany, France, and Great Britain present their compliments to his imperial highness and their excellencies the ministers of the yamên, and beg leave to acknowledge the note of their excellencies dated November 11, 1883.

In this note your excellencies propose, in reference to the pillage of Shameen and the outrages upon foreigners by a Cantonese mob, to nominate a gentleman to deal with it on behalf of China. You then ask the representatives of the powers interested “to consult together and name a gentleman to arrange matters with your nominee. The two persons thus appointed should choose a third person as referee, in order to avoid controversy.”

The undersigned have read and carefully considered this communication, and Mr. Young, acting in their name, having had a conversation with your excellencies as to the exact meaning and scope of your proposition, have now the honor to accept it, and in doing so to recognize on the part of your imperial highness a desire to do all in your power to atone for the injury inflicted upon our people by a Chinese mob.

In acquainting your Imperial highness and your excellencies with this determination, the undersigned, in order that there may be no misapprehensions, will present the case as they understand it. It is agreed hat these gentlemen shall form a board of arbitration, that they shall be judges of equal rank and authority, that in all questions a majority of the board shall decide, and at the close of the discussion an award of the amounts due to each claimant shall be paid by the Government against whom it is given, without delay and without appeal by any of the arbitrators to any higher authority whatever.

It is understood likewise that the decision of this board as to the money losses in Canton is to be final, and the undersigned, in the name of their Governments, upon the payment of the awards made within a reasonable time, not less than thirty days after the award, will regard the case as absolutely closed, and hold the Chinese Government free from any further recourse as to claims arising out of the Shameen riot.

The undersigned would also suggest that, as the season is late, and it is important to have this business ended, after the yamên, on the one part, and the undersigned, on the other, have named their representatives, that the yamên and the undersigned should in conference name a third gentleman who would be entirely acceptable to both sides. A selection made in this manner would come within the principles of a just and equitable arbitration.

If this statement of the case shows that we have rightly construed the meaning of your dispatch, the undersigned, upon the receipt of that information, of such assurances as are requisite to make the arbitration a valid tribunal, and of the name of the gentleman you propose as your representative, are prepared to name their representative and do all in their power to bring the business to a satisfactory termination.

Accept, &c.