File No. 893.00/807.
The American Ambassador to Great Britain to the Secretary of State.
London, December 23, 1911.
The Undersecretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Langley, has just sent me the following note:
About a fortnight go Sir John Jordan suggested that the Japanese Government should be invited to cooperate with us in assisting the negotiations between Yuan Shih Kai and the revolutionaries. He pointed out that it would strengthen our hands if we were in a position to let it be known that the other powers were with us.
We agreed with this view, communicated on the subject with Tokyo, and when we replied to Sir John Jordan informing him of our concurrence, we told him of Mr. Knox’s general wish, expressed some days before, that the United States Government and His Majesty’s Government should be and act in perfect accord on the Chinese question.
That there is no change in the policy of joint action hitherto pursued is quite clear from the telegrams subsequently received from Sir John Jordan, showing that he is in constant communication with his American colleague as well as with the Japanese minister; and as late as the 20th instant the American, British, French, German, Japanese and Russian representatives at Peking made a joint communication to the Commissioners of the Peace Conference at Shanghai, which shows conclusively that there is no change of policy.