File No. 893.00/2581
The Secretary of State to Minister Reinsch
Washington , June 8, 1917, 5 p.m.
The Chinese Minister here calls attention to the possibility of misunderstanding a sentence in my June 4, 3 p.m., beginning with the words “with the form of government.”
[Page 58]If attention should be drawn to it or attempt be made to use it unfairly you are authorized in your discretion to say in substance that the Department did not have in mind the difference between a republic and a monarchy but referred to the present strife in China over the organization and relation of various branches of government. The American Government is not indifferent to the maintenance of republican government in China. On the contrary it hopes for its uninterrupted continuance.