I signed this contract with everyone due to the disturbances in the twenty-sixth year of Guangxu, as the eight counties under Xuanhua Prefecture—Xuanhua County, Yanqing Prefecture, Huai'an County, Chicheng County, Longmen County, Huailai County, Yuzhou, and Xining—experienced the Boxer Rebellion's disturbances. The Catholic churches, the homes of the parishioners, their properties, and assets were all destroyed. Our parish bishop and committee members discussed and decided to compensate for all incurred losses. Xuanhua Prefecture will pay a total of 1,440,000 taels of silver in installments. The details were outlined in a preliminary agreement we established on March 14 of this year, and after half a month, it will be replaced with a detailed contract.
Now, according to this newly established contract, we will draft a post-disaster management protocol to ensure that the believers can live peacefully and without trouble in the future. Therefore, we have prepared four copies of the contract provisions: one kept at the local government office, one at the prefectural office, one at the church in Beijing, and one at the church in Xuanhua, with everyone holding a copy as proof.
The post-disaster management regulations consist of eight articles:
Article 1: All churches are included in the agreement, and local officials must protect them diligently without any negligence. Both the common people and believers are Chinese, and local officials should treat them equally and fairly, subject to the same rules. In case of any disputes, local officials must render impartial judgments and cannot favor any party. If anyone misuses their authority to intimidate others or disrespect the authorities, regardless of whether they are believers or not, they should be severely punished. In short, we must maintain good neighborly relations and prevent any conflicts from arising again.
Article 2: Compensation Schedule from Xuanhua Prefecture: 20,000 taels to be paid by the end of April this year; 270,000 taels by the end of May; 290,000 taels by the end of August; 290,000 taels by the end of November; 290,000 taels by the end of March in the twenty-eighth year; and 280,000 taels by the end of June.
The total of 1,440,000 taels must be paid punctually, without delay.
Paragraph 1: The calculation for compensation and relief money is as follows: fifty taels of silver for each tiled house, twenty-five taels of silver for each mud house; for the killed believers, eighty taels per adult and forty taels per child. If a house is burned down, the compensation for tiled and mud houses will be doubled, all clearly stated in the formal compensation, written explicitly.
Paragraph 2: If there is not enough silver when it comes time to pay, money can also be used as a substitute, with one tael of silver equivalent to 9,836 copper coins, regardless of fluctuations in silver prices; this is set in stone.
Paragraph 3: Bandits in various regions have been dealt with severely by the Chinese official army and the coalition forces of various countries, and local officials have been continuously arresting and executing them on the spot. All major matters regarding compensation for churches and relief for believers have been carefully discussed and settled by the local authorities and committees together with the priests. Believers are prohibited from claiming that bandits are responsible, reporting old cases, or implicating innocent people. Regarding incidents where believers forcibly extorted from civilians before March 15th, they will be treated leniently and not pursued further. If such incidents occur again in the future, they will be dealt with as riots, with no tolerance at all.
Paragraph 4: The amount of compensation and relief funds for Xuanjun is extremely large, and it must be distributed among households. If anyone refuses to pay, local officials will arrest them and recover the debt. This is a major fundraising issue, and in order to better solve the problem, let the local Chinese officials find a solution, without interference from the church.
Paragraph 5: There have already been two instances of relief for deceased believers, a total of eight thousand taels of silver and ten thousand stones of grain were given. It was previously agreed with the priests to deduct this amount from the formal compensation this time. Now, this deduction will not be made in the formal compensation, demonstrating leniency towards the believers.
Paragraph 6: A new contract has been established, along with clear guidelines, to be followed indefinitely. The previous draft contract can be considered as waste paper; there is no need to check it or destroy it, and this is reiterated for clarity.
