Wells Williams to Prince Kung, September 30, 1874

Mr. Williams to Prince Kung.

To His Imperial Highness Prince Kung, &c.:

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your highness’s dispatch stating that a certain Wang-Yen-ping, who had formerly combined with some vagabonds in Shanghai to convey arms from thence to Chin-kiang, and had escaped arrest by flight to other countries, had there falsely asserted that he was an envoy of the Chinese government, and you accordingly request me to write to my Government and have the man arrested and sent back to China for punishment, lest he cause further trouble, &c.

In regard to this man, who fled abroad to escape arrest, and has there given out that he is an envoy from the Chinese government, I may first state, in reply, that I have never heard anything of the particulars mentioned by the taotai as seen in the news-paper.

But in relation to the request made in this dispatch for his arrest, I beg to state that it is a general rule among western nations that when a subject of one country, who is charged with such an offense, flees to another, he is not liable to arrest and examination there, unless he has broken the laws of that country. In this instance Wang-Yen-ping has fled to the United States, and there has falsely given out that he is an envoy of the Chinese government, but the officers there will soon learn that, as he bears no letters with him from his own government, he is only palming himself off as such.

It is quite out of the question for such a hare-brained, half-crazy man as this to make any trouble there, and it is needless for me to make known this application to have him arrested with a view of punishment. Your highness will, therefore, I hope, be relieved of all apprehension and solicitude on this head.

I have the honor to be your imperial highness’s obedient servant,