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We command all Tartar Marshals, Governors General, and Governors of provinces, as well as Customs taotais, to forbid, in the first place for a period of two years, the importation of implements of war as well as of material of foreign origin serving exclusively for their manufacture.

Inform the ministry concerned.

Respect this!

The 12th day of the 4th moon of the 27th year of Kuang-hsü (29th May, 1901).

Official Reply.

The 7th day of the 4th moon of the present year (24 May 1901) we received from Your Excellency the following official despatch:

"I have the honor to acknowledge to Your Highness and Your Excellency receipt of the letter which you were pleased to send me in reply to my communication dated May 7th concerning the indemnities. In the letter to which Your Highness and Your Excellency have just replied we informed you that the approximate figure of the expenses incurred and of the losses sustained by the Powers amounted to the sum of 450 million Taels, calculated to the 1st of July of the current year.

"In reply to this communication Your Highness and Your Excellency have informed me that the Chinese Government proposed to pay off this sum to the powers by monthly payments of 1,250,000 taels during 30 years.

"The Representatives of the Powers have not failed to transmit this proposal to their Governments. But they must call the attention of Your Highness and Your Excellency to the fact that the total of the payments proposed by the Chinese Government only represents the capital of the sum mentioned, without the question of interest having been taken account of.

"I consequently beg Your Highness and Your Excellency to be so kind as to inform us as soon as possible of the intention of the Chinese Government in this respect."

In considering in a previous despatch the question of indemnities, we explained to Your Excellency the penury of the Chinese treasury.