Prince Kung to Wells Williams, October 5, 1874

Prince Kung to Mr. Williams.

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

I have had the honor to receive your excellency’s dispatch of the 30th ultimo, in which you state as follows:

(Here Mr. Williams’s dispatch is quoted in full.)

In reference to this case, I may quote the 13th article of the American treaty, in which it is provided, “if criminals, subjects of China, take refuge in the houses or on hoard the vessels of citizens of the United States, they shall not be harbored or concealed, but shall be delivered up to justice on due requisition by the Chinese local officers addressed to those of the United States.”

The criminal, Wang-Yen-ping, who was reported by the southern superintendent of trade as having been implicated with some vagabonds at Shanghai in secretly carrying arms, and afterward fleeing the country to avoid arrest, had designed a scheme of brigandage in so doing. It is really to be feared that he will delude some people by now giving out that he is an envoy of the Chinese government, and thereby cause trouble; and it was this apprehension which led me to address your excellency and request that you would communicate the facts to your government to the end that this criminal might be arrested and sent back to China to be tried and punished.

In your reply now received, you state that as Wang-Yen-ping has no letters of credence from his own government, it will be known that he is an imposter, and quite impossible for such a hare-brained, half-crazy man to make any trouble. I shall put this reply carefully on file for future reference, and now send this acknowledgment.

His Excellency S. Wells Williams, United States Chargé d’Affaires.