sian; M. Berthemy, the French Minister; Sir Frederick Bruce, and Anson Burlingame. Thrown together constantly in informal and intimate association, together they formulated that which was the forerunner of the famous "Open Door" policy of John Hay. As stated in his dispatch to Washington it was as follows:
"The policy upon which we agreed is briefly this: that while we claim our treaty right to buy and sell and live in the treaty ports, subject in respect to rights of property and persons to the jurisdiction of our own governments, we will not ask for, nor take concessions of, territory in the treaty ports or in any way interfere with the jurisdiction of the Chinese Government over its own people, or ever menace the territorial integrity of the Chinese Empire. That we will not take part in the internal struggles in China beyond what is necessary to maintain our treaty rights. * * *
"By the favoured-nation clause in the treaties, no nation can gain, by any sharp act of diplomacy, any privilege not secured to all.
