Prince Kung to S. Wells Williams , U. S. Chargé d’affaires ad interim, March 10, 1868

Prince Kung to Mr. Williams.

Prince Kung, chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, herewith sends a reply:

On the 2d instant I had the honor of receiving your excellency’s dispatch, in which you inform me of the report that two foreigners and two Chinese are now kept in durance by the Coreans, and request that the Chinese government should demand of the Corean government to hand them all over to the Chinese officers, &c.

On the same day that I received this communication the British minister, Sir Rutherford Alcock, also sent a dispatch to the following effect:

“Last year the French admiral took his squadron to Corea, where a collision took place with the authorities; and it was after that occurrence that an American vessel went to Corea with the intention of trading, and was attacked in the Piyang river, which she had entered, by the people. The report that came to me at the time was, that her crew had been entirely cut off; but afterwards many persons reported that some of them were yet alive, and detained in confinement by the Coreans. Recently a Chinese pilot has informed the United States consul at Chifu that he knows that two foreigners and two Chinese belonging to this vessel are still alive in Corea.”

On receiving these dispatches I have recurred to the note written by your excellency on the 28th of October, 1866, in which you stated that an American schooner had been wrecked in Corea, that the vessel had been burned, and 24 of her crew carried off, concluding with the request that directions might be sent to the authorities in Mukten that if any of these men were handed over they might be carefully cared for by those officials. The members of the Foreign Office personally assured you at the time that if any persons were thus delivered by the Coreans, those authorities should be directed to do everything necessary for their comfort; and corresponding instructions were immediately forwarded to the general in command at Mukten, and to the collector at Ninchwang. In due course a reply was received from the former officer, in which he stated that the Corean authorities had previously given over to the district magistrate of Ching-teh six distressed foreigners, saved from the wreck of [the “Surprise,”] a vessel which had been driven ashore in their country; that they had been already sent on to Yingtsz and handed over to Mr. Knight, the United States consul at that port, since which time no foreigners had been delivered to them.

Taking all these considerations together, and reflecting that an American ship of war has already visited Corea, but was unable to ascertain all the real facts about the matter, and that moreover the French and Coreans seem likely to engage in hostilities, it must be acknowledged that it will be rather difficult to learn the truth of the case. In the dispatch under reply you propose that measures be taken by this government to bring about the release of these men; and if I delay a little, to consult as to the best mode of procedure, it is that the affair may get the benefit of the best deliberations we can give it. It really will not be best to presently send off a mission to Corea asking about the surrender of these prisoners, for it will probably be evasively excused, and the probable success of the effort imperiled; or else, in our hurry, we shall not get at the real and right beginning of the matter; (referring probably to the misconception the Coreans would get of the object of the demand thus suddenly made on them.)

I would further wish your excellency to reflect that, although Corea is in one sense a dependency of China, her authorities are now engaged in eradicating the religion and forbidding its exercise; and their proceedings in this matter are carried on by themselves just as they please, but in what manner his Majesty’s officials have not heard. A moment’s reflection will no doubt enable you to see the whole bearing of this suggestion.

I have, however, already sent orders to Mukten to require the authorities in Manchuria to learn all they conveniently can upon this matter, and meanwhile send a reply to the British minister and to yourself in regard to it.