"L regret, therefore, to state that I cannot agree with' the proposal contained in your Excellency's Note, namely, that the question should be examined on behalf of the Heads of the Legations concerned by a commission chosen from among their local representatives together with representatives of the Chines Government and that the conel:- thus arrived at should in dus course be submitted to the several isters and to the National Government of China, for I regard such a way as only tending to complicate the matter without helping. {ts practical solution, communicating to your that this matter may be speedily settled.
waiting a favourable reply, 1 avail myself ete.
(sigd.) CHeNotING T. Waxc.
Minister of Foreign Affairs.'
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.