File No. 893.00/1891.
The American Ambassador to Japan to the Secretary of State.
Tokyo, August 25, 1913.
Sir: I have the honor to report that Dr. Sun Yat Sen, General Huang Hsing, and Hu Han Ming, ex-Tutuh of Kwantung, who instigated the recent insurrection in South China and for whose heads Yuan Shih Kai has offered rewards, arrived in Japan in the early part of the present month.
The Japanese authorities at first hesitated whether they should give them asylum, but they finally decided that, inasmuch as they [Page 130] are political and not criminal refugees, they would allow them to remain in this country on the condition that they do not use it as a basis for revolutionary operations. It is suspected that they have been followed to Japan by persons seeking to take their lives, and the Japanese police are accordingly exercising the strictest vigilance for their safety. While the movements and whereabouts of the refugees have been concealed as far as possible, they are at present said to be staying in Yokohama and Tokyo.
It is rumored that Dr. Sun, and perhaps his colleagues, intend later to proceed to the United States.
I have [etc.]