File No. 893.00/820.
[Untitled]
The views of Sir Edward Grey, more fully stated than in the letter from Langley of December 23, are set forth in the following memorandum received today:
Yuan Shih Kai has constantly asked the advice of His Majesty’s Minister in Peking, since the beginning of the present negotiations between the Chinese [Page 60] Government and the revolutionaries, and His Majesty’s Minister proposed that the Japanese Government be invited to cooperate in assisting these negotiations, to which proposal His Majesty’s Government at once assented in view of the terms of the Anglo-Japanese alliance. Instructions were accordingly sent to His Majesty’s Minister at Peking and His Majesty’s Consul General in Shanghai.
Sir John Jordan, at the time that he made the above proposal, added that it would strengthen his hands if he were in a position to let it be known that the other powers were with him, but that concerted action of more than two or three legations was too unwieldy to be workable. His Majesty’s Government agreed with this view, and in order that Sir John Jordan might continue to keep in close touch with his United States colleague, they reminded him of the wish expressed a short time before by the United States Government that, they and His Majesty’s Government should act in perfect accord in the Chinese question.
From the information received from Peking there is no doubt that all legations are working together and are kept as fully informed as is practically possible of everything that passes between Yuan Shin Kai and His Majesty’s Minister. His Majesty’s Government intend to adhere strictly to the policy of concerted action at Peking and to take no steps which are not fully approved by all the powers interested.
Note.—On December 29 Dr. Sun Yat Sen was unanimously elected Provisional President of the Republic of China by the assembly convoked at Nanking by the military leaders of the revolution.