File No. 893.032/4.
The American Minister to the Secretary of State.
Peking, May 2, 1912.
Sir: I have the honor to send enclosed in duplicate five clippings from the Peking Daily News1; three from its issue of April 30 and two from that of May 1. One of the former reports the opening of the National Council in Peking on April 29; a second gives the text of the address of the Provisional President of the Republic delivered on that occasion; and the third is an editorial comment upon the event. * * *
The opening of the Council was a noteworthy event and inasmuch as a rather serious disagreement developed among its members immediately after assembling which is but briefly mentioned in the clipping, I have the honor to explain the reference more fully.
When the Council met it at once appeared that of the 76 members reported present a large number were never elected members of this National Council but were members of the Advisory Council that formerly sat at Nanking. [The minister here gives the details of this complication.] A compromise was finally reached on the afternoon of May 1, when it was decided that the representatives of Kiangsi and Hupei in the Nanking Assembly now in Peking, who come from Provinces as yet unrepresented here, should be allowed to sit in the National Council until duly elected representatives of these Provinces shall arrive. There are six Provinces which have as yet held no election, and to those telegrams were sent yesterday urging the immediate election of representatives. * * *
The acting chairman made a few remarks in which he sought to enforce his view that this was none other than the Nanking Assembly transferred to Peking, and then introduced President Yuan Shih-kai, who was received with applause. The President read his address and on its conclusion a reply was read by the acting chairman.
The address of the President, which has been widely published in Chinese and in English, made an excellent impression upon the foreign residents of China. It will be noticed that he recognizes the financial problem as the one of paramount importance. He speaks [Page 78] of the necessity of borrowing foreign capital and of improving the national credit by introducing financial reform. He admitted too that China has few men qualified to undertake financial reform, and this admission may perhaps have been intended to prepare the way for the engagement of foreign expert advice. * * * In short there is more than a suspicion that the passages of the address to which attention has been called [tariff and land tax] were designed for foreign consumption.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩