Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 4, 1917

File No. 893.00/2581

The Secretary of State to Minister Reinsch

[Telegram]

Department of State,
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.”

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.

Lansing