File No. 893.00/2002.
The American Chargé d’Affaires to the Secretary of State.
Peking, October 10, 1913.
Sir: I have the honor to report that on the afternoon of the 8th instant the Minister for Foreign Affairs called at the Legation formally. He stated that he had great pleasure in informing me that the remaining great powers of the world had notified his Government, through their respective chiefs of mission, that they were prepared to enter into formal relations with the Republic of China, to which they therefore accorded recognition. The Minister further stated that while this simultaneous recognition by so many great powers afforded his Government the greatest satisfaction, it did not forget that the Government of the United States had been the first to extend this mark of friendship and he therefore availed himself of the occasion to call formally on the American Diplomatic Mission to extend the sincere thanks of his Government for the cordiality of sentiment that prompted the American Government to be the first of the great powers to recognize the Republic of China.
I expressed my appreciation of the courtesy displayed by his excellency in making this formal call and referred to the recognition extended by my Government as the official expression of an urgent popular demand on the part of the people of the United States who felt for the Republic of China a peculiar sympathy, due to the similarity of the political aspirations cherished by the peoples of the two Republics.
I have [etc.]