Office of the Historian

893.00/7373: Telegram

The Minister in China (MacMurray) to the Secretary of State

Peking, May 4, 1926—6 p.m.
[Received May 4—11:48 a.m.]

201. My telegram number 190, April 21, 6 p.m.

1.
Under date of May 1st ex-President Tsao Kun sent a circular telegram to Cabinet, Senate and House of Representatives of 1924, to the military and civil, and to public bodies throughout the country, which amounted in substance to a resignation in favor of the 1924 Cabinet, which he stated should resume the affairs of government and in accordance with law take over the duties of the President.
2.
W. W. Yen, the Premier, and so the head of the 1924 Tsao Kun cabinet, issued a circular telegram on May 2nd expressing his own unwillingness to comply with the suggestion of Tsao Kun.
3.
In the latter regard I was informed this morning by General Chi Hsieh-yuan, Marshal Wu Pei-fu’s close adviser and representative at present in Peking, that it was expected Yen would eventually consent to head a regency cabinet government which it was hoped could be established within a few weeks. According to Chi, who stated that Chang Tso-lin and Wu were solidly in accord, the plan is to hold a parliamentary election in the near future for the constitution of such a body which would then proceed to elect a President. I was given to understand likewise by Chi that Chang continues as formerly to be in favor of the Tariff Conference and that Wu is now like minded although originally opposed to the Conference in view of the probability then existing that any moneys resulting therefrom would only find their way into the pockets of the Tuan government.
4.
Chi also expressed himself to the effect that the Wu-Chang alliance was pursuing its intention of eliminating the Kuominchun by continuing the attack in the direction of Kalgan.
5.
Repeated to Tokyo.
MacMurray