On the 30th of November, Lord Salisbury addressed to Ambassador Choate the reply of his government, as follows: "I have the honor to state that I have carefully considered, in communication with my colleagues, the proposal contained in your excellency's note of September 22 that a declaration should be made by foreign powers claiming 'spheres of interest' in China as to their intentions in regard to the treatment of foreign trade and interest therein. I have much pleasure in informing your excellency that Her Majesty's Government will be prepared to make a declaration in the sense desired by your Government in regard to the leased territory of Wei-hai Wei and all territory in China which may hereafter be acquired by Great Britain by lease or otherwise, and all spheres of interest now held or that may hereafter be held by her in China, provided that a similar declaration is made by other powers concerned." Ambassador Porter, at Paris, received a prompt reply, December 16, from the French Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Delcassé, in the following note: "The declarations which I made in the Chamber on the 24th of November last, and which I have had occasion to recall to you since then, show clearly the sentiments of the Government of the Republic. It desires throughout the whole of China and, with the quite natural reservation that all the powers interested give an assurance of their willingness to act likewise, is ready to apply in the territories which are leased to it, equal treatment to the citizens and subjects of all nations, especially in the matter of customs duties and navigation dues, as well as transportation tariffs on rail ways." Viscount Aoki, Minister for Foreign Affairs, replied for the government of Japan, December 26, in the following note to Minister Buck: "I have the happy duty of assuring your excellency that the Imperial Government will have no hesitation to give their assent to so just and fair a proposal of the United States, provided that all the other powers concerned shall accept the same." The reply of the Russian government was addressed to Ambassador Tower by Count Mouravieff, on the 30th of December, in the following terms: