"May 19. At the Yamên, yesterday, I reminded the Ministers how I had unceasingly warned them during the last six months how dangerous it was not to take adequate measures in suppression of the Boxer Societies. I said that the result of the apathy of the Chinese Government was that now a Mission chapel, a few miles distant from the capital, had been destroyed. The Ministers admitted that the danger of the Boxer movement had not previously appeared to them so urgent, but that now they fully saw how serious it was. On the previous day an Imperial Decree had been issued, whereby specified metropolitan and provincial authorities were directed to adopt stringent measures to suppress the Boxers. This, they believed, would not fail to have the desired effect." "May 21. All eleven foreign Representatives attended a meeting of the Diplomatic Body held yesterday afternoon, at the instance of the French Minister. The doyen was empowered to write, in the name of all the foreign Representatives, a note to the Yamên to the effect that the Diplomatic Body, basing their demands on the Decrees already issued by the Palace denunciatory of the Boxers, requested that all persons who should print, publish, or disseminate placards which menaced foreigners, all individuals aiding and abetting, all owners of houses or temples now used as meeting places for Boxers, should be arrested. They also demanded that those guilty of arson, murder, outrages, &c., together with those affording support or direction to Boxers while committing such outrages, should be executed. Finally, the publication of a Decree in Peking and the Northern Provinces setting forth the above. The foreign Representatives decided at their meeting to take further measures if the disturbances still continued, or if a favorable answer was not received to their note within five days. The meeting did not decide what measures should be taken, but the Representatives were generally averse to bringing guards to Peking, and, what found most favour, was as follows:—