Office of the Historian

File No. 893.00/1447.

The Secretary of State to the American Minister.

[Extract.]
No. 283.]
Department of State,
Washington, September 20, 1912.

Sir: The Department has received and read with interest your dispatch No. 612 of August 3 last, reporting an interview with the Japanese Minister with regard to the recognition of the Chinese Republic. What you said to Mr. Ijuin on this subject is approved by the Department.

In this connection, however, it is the Department’s opinion that it would be more in accordance with established precedents to defer recognition of the Chinese Republic until a permanent constitution shall have been definitely adopted by a representative national assembly, a president duly elected in accordance with the provisions of such constitution, and the present Provisional Government replaced by a permanent one with constitutional authority. * * *

I am [etc.],

Huntington Wilson.

Note.—The principle of concerted international action in China previously announced by the Department of State is reaffirmed in a note to the Ambassador of Great Britain, dated October 4, 1912. As this note is directly concerned with the matter of the international loan it is printed under that head.

See also the Message of the President at the beginning of this volume, page XXIV.