His Excellency
FOREIGN OFFICE.
C.O.
195
21480
10th June 1903
12 JUN 03
Your Excellency:-
I have the honour to inform you that His Majesty's Government have carefully considered the suggestion made by you on behalf of the Imperial Government on the 20th ultimo that the Chinese Government should be requested to consent to the prolongation for a further term of two years of the period during which by Article V of the Protocol signed at Peking on September 7th, 1901, that Government undertook to prohibit the importation of arms.
His Majesty's Government are not disposed to deny that the Signatory Powers are entitled, under the terms of that Article, to require an extension of the period in case they recognize the necessity for such a measure. The question of the expediency of such a step appears to them, however, another matter, in regard to which they are influenced by the following considerations which I request Your Excellency to be informed of.
Count Benckendorff,
&c.,
&c.,
&c.