File No. 893.00/2656
Chargé Wheeler to the Secretary of State
Tokyo, July 7, 1917, 3 p.m.
The Foreign Office here believes there are now indications that the immediate situation in China will be relieved without serious fighting. The Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs states that reports from their Legation at Peking indicate that the monarchy has a very short lease of life; that Chang Hsun is nonplussed at the strength of the opposition even in the North, that he has moreover incurred the enmity of several of the most prominent members of the Imperial family who consider that his precipitate action has destroyed all hopes of a permanent restoration of the dynasty, and that realizing failure to be imminent he is seeking a way to retire with assurances that his life and property will be left him. Mr. Shidehara tells me confidentially that Chang has given Japan private assurances that there will be no fighting within the city of Peking and that Wang Shih-chen has guaranteed to Hayashi that all necessary protection will be afforded to foreigners.