AMERICA, GERMANY, AND CHINA- 1899 -1902 189 



action in the entanglements which followed was prompt 

 and successful, and thinking men everywhere soon saw 

 it to be so. Toward the end of July, 1900, being about 

 to go to America for the summer, I took leave of Count 

 von Billow at the Foreign Office, and, on coming out, met 

 one of my colleagues, who, although representing one 

 of the lesser European powers, was well known as ex 

 ceedingly shrewd and far-sighted. He said: &quot;I congratu 

 late you on the course pursued by your government dur 

 ing this fearful Chinese imbroglio. Other powers have 

 made haste to jump into war; your admiral at Tientsin 

 seems the only one who has kept his head ; other govern 

 ments have treated representatives of the Chinese Empire 

 as hostile, and, in doing so, have cut themselves off from 

 all direct influence on the Peking Government; the gov 

 ernment at Washington has taken an opposite course, 

 has considered the troubles as, prima facie, the work of 

 insurrectionists, has insisted on claiming friendship with 

 the constituted authorities in China, and, in view of this 

 friendship, has insisted on being kept in communication 

 with its representative at the Chinese capital, the result 

 being that your government has been allowed to commu 

 nicate with its representative, and has thereby gained the 

 information and issued the orders which have saved the 

 entire diplomatic corps, as well as the forces of the dif 

 ferent powers now in Peking. 



It was one of those contemporary testimonies to the 

 skill of Mr. McKinley and Secretary Hay which indicate 

 the verdict of history. 



Our later policy was equally sound. It was to prevent 

 any further territorial encroachments on China by foreign 

 powers, and to secure the opening of the empire on equal 

 terms to the commerce of the entire world. On the other 

 hand, the German Government, exasperated by the mur 

 der of its minister at Peking, was at first inclined to go 

 beyond this, and a speech of the Emperor to his troops 

 as they were leaving Germany for the seat of war was 

 hastily construed to mean that they were to carry out 



