Prince Kung to Wells Williams, September 23, 1874
Prince Kung to Mr. Williams.
Prince Kung, chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, herewith makes a communication.
I received, on the 14th instant, from the southern superintendent of trade, a dispatch inclosing two reports from the intendents at Chin-kiang and Shanghai to the following effeet:
“There was a linguist named Wang-Yen-ping, who some time since got up an illegal comb nation at Shanghai with some vagabonds, and without any certificate for what he was doing, took a lot of arms up to Chin-kiang, no doubt with the design of plunder a id brigandage. Hearing that search was making for him, he managed to flee the country.
“Yesterday, on looking over the translations made by the taotai of Shanghai, from a newspaper dated the 10th of August, there occurred the following paragraph: ‘A copy of a Hartford paper has been received, in which it is said that a Chinese from Shantung, named Wang-Tsang-fuh alias Wang-Yen-ping, was there, going about among the hotels and boarding-houses and talking in a wild manner. We have heard that he intends going from Canada to England, and wherever he goes he gives out that he has been sent as a special commissioner by the Chinese government.’
“From what is said of his age and appearance, his former history, and the manner of his escape from this country, there can be no doubt of the identity of this man with Wang-Yen-ping. He can both talk and read the English language, and if he has the hardihood to go abroad and everywhere talk in this wild way, he ought to be closely pursued and arrested, or it is greatly to be feared that he will cause difficulty of the most serious kind.
“I have, therefore, to request that you will inform the American minister at Peking of this, that he may write to his Government and have the man Wang-Yen-ping arrested wherever he may be and sent back to China, so that he may be severely punished.”
I, the prince, have learned, in relation to this man Wang-Yen-ping, that he was once engaged in secretly carrying a lot of arms to aid in a scheme of brigandage, and has now gone abroad with a false story that he is a government envoy. This is all contrary to law, and it is very important that he be arrested and punished, lest serious troulle arise; and I now make known these facts to your excellency, and desire that you will make them known to your Government. It is of the greatest importance that Wang–Yen-ping be at once taken up and sent back to China for trial, so that he can no longer roam over other lands and create disturbance; and I certainly hope that it will be done as now requested.