Hongkong, 22nd June.
Mr. A. Cunningham specially interviewed H.E. Li Hung-chang yesterday at Canton on the subject of the crisis.
ELE. Li said_he was ordered to Peking by the Empress Dowager to suppress the Boxers and make peace with the Powers.
He believed the Boxers were only a fanatical anti-Christian rabble, and he thought the native converts and even the missionaries were to be blamed, the Catholics being very troublesome.
He did not think the Boxers had any political motives, and thinks the Empress Dowager has been entirely misled and misinformed as to the true state of affairs. It was not her intention that present events should take place.
He was officially informed that the Taku forts fired because the Admirals
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.