File No. 774/404.
The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Reid.1
Washington, November 19, 1908.
(Mr. Bacon states that owing to the death of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor of China2 the Wai-wu Pu has requested that the sitting of the opium commission be postponed to the 1st of February next. Says that while the United States regrets the necessity of interfering with the program laid down it sympathizes with the Chinese Government in its bereavement and considers such postponement would be desirable if acceptable to participating powers. Mr. Reid is instructed to communicate this suggestion to the foreign office and deport telegraphically the attitude of the British Government.)