File No. 893.01/106
[Untitled]
Peking, May 16, 1916, 8 p.m.
There is reason to believe that the effect of the announcement by the southern leaders of the selection of Tsen Chun-hsuan as commander in chief and Li Yuan-hung as President has resulted in crystallizing support for Yuan, as the northeastern generals do not propose to submit to dictation. The conference at Nanking will be decisive as to the extent of military support of Yuan; it is feared that there is a prospect of predominance of military influence at the cost of constitutional rights; still the Peking leaders are firmly committed to Cabinet and parliamentary Government. The prominence [Page 81] given to bravo like Tsen by the revolutionists discounts to some extent their professed liberalism.
In Tsinanfu, Chinese and Japanese ruffians continue reign of terror, encouraged by the Japanese, who allow the imported hoodlums to make their headquarters at the railway station, and aggravated by the timidity of the Chinese governor who will not allow police and military to take effective means to suppress rioters because should any Japanese be injured intervention would threaten. Dilemma, either continuance of rioting until the Japanese declare that it is necessary to assume responsibility for maintenance of order in the foreign settlement at least, or armed suppression of the disturbances at the risk of possible conflict with the Japanese.