They came to the China and General Merritt had not arrived and did not appear until within a few minutes of the start.

Then the deputation from the insurgent chieftain had an interview with him, asking that two of their number should go to Hongkong on the China to express fully the views of the insurgent government to to the commissioner, Don Felipe Agoncillo, chosen to represent the Filipinos at Washington and Paris and to ask that he be allowed to go to the United States on the China.

When the committee saw General Merritt he was taking leave of Admiral Dewey, and the General, who had not heard of this movement until that moment--the question being entirely new--invited the opinion of the Admiral, who said there was "certainly no objection," and on the contrary, it would be very well to permit the passage of the deputation to Hongkong and of the commissioner appointed from that city to Washington.

General Merritt at once in half a dozen words gave the order, and the journey began.
General Greene, who reads and translates Spanish with facility and whose Spanish speech is plain, treated with marked courtesy the Filipino committee to Hongkong and thence the commissioner and his secretary from Hongkong to San Francisco, on the way to Washington and Paris.

General Greene, while according distinction to the representatives of the insurgents, stated to them that his attentions were personal and he could not warrant them official recognition at Washington or anything more than such politeness as gentlemen receive from each other.