893.00/3005
The Consul General at Shanghai (Sammons) to the Minister in China (Reinsch)16
[Extract]
Shanghai, February 14,
1919.
No. 2636
Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith a
self-explanatory bulletin, as issued by the so-called Constitutional
Government of China, containing a further statement by Mr. Tong
Shao-yi, as telegraphed to the President of China, …
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
Bulletin No. 4 of the Intelligence Bureau of
the Constitutional Government of China
Shanghai, February 13,
1919.
Mr. Tong Shao-Yi, Chief Delegate of the Constitutional Government
of China to the Domestic Peace Conference, has addressed the
following telegram to Mr. Hsu Shih-chang, Peking:
In view of the progress being made in the Peace
negotiations that are attracting attention at home and
abroad, a satisfactory result will be rendered
impossible unless the two most imminently embarrassing
obstacles now confronting us be at once removed.
The resumption of military operations in Shensi has been
the subject of a series of telegrams to you, which
should have been followed by peremptory orders from you
to the Northern forces to cease fighting forthwith. This
latter object however cannot be attained by the mere
reiteration of empty phrases clamoring for peace. I,
therefore, respectfully request that the modus operandi suggested in
General Li’s telegram of the 6th instant be immediately
carried out.17 But if
hostilities be permitted to continue, those responsible
for the inconsistency and breach of faith shall have to
bear the blame.
Preparations for war with commitments for military loans
and the despatch of fresh supplies of arms are persisted
in while the North asserts a sincere desire for peace.
This state of things is as surprising as it is
deplorable. Requests have been repeatedly made for the
issuance of a general order from you prohibiting the
importation of munitions of war from Japan and directing
the return thereto of such as have already reached
China, in order to strike at the root of the evil.
These two matters are of the gravest import and your
immediate action dealing with them is respectfully
urged.
