These should be sent officially to the acting Legislative Council in the name of the citizens’ representatives.  You should at the same time wire to the President all that has taken place.  The votes and the letter of nomination are to be forwarded to Peking in due course.

As for the exact words to be inserted in the letter of nomination, they have been communicated to you in our telegram of the 23rd inst.  These characters, forty-five in all, must on no account be altered.  The rest of the text is left to your discretion.

We may add that since the letter of nomination and the vesting of the acting Legislative Council with general powers to act on behalf of the citizens’ representatives are matters which transgress the bounds of the law, you are earnestly requested not to send to the National Convention Bureau any telegraphic enquiry concerning them, so that the latter may not find itself in the awkward position of having to reply.

Two days after this telegram had been dispatched the longfeared action on the part of Japan had been taken and a new situation had been created.  The Japanese “advice” of the 28th October was in fact a veritable bombshell playing havoc with the house of cards which had been so carefully erected.  But the intrigue had gone so far, and the prizes to be won by the monarchical supporters were so great that nothing could induce them to retrace their footsteps.  For a week and more a desperate struggle went on behind the scenes in the Presidential Palace, since Yuan Shih-kai was too astute a man not to understand that a most perilous situation was being rapidly created and that if things went wrong he would be the chief victim.  But family influences and the voice of the intriguers proved too strong for him, and in the end he gave his reluctant consent to a further step.  The monarchists, boldly acting on the principle that possession is nine points of the law, called upon the provinces to anticipate the vote and to substitute the title of Emperor for that of President in all government documents and petitions so that morally the question would be chose jugee.

    CODE TELEGRAM DATED NOVEMBER 7, 1915, FROM CHU CHI-CHUN, MINISTER OF
    THE INTERIOR, ET ALIA, ENJOINING A STRONG ATTITUDE TOWARDS
    INTERFERENCE ON THE PART OF A CERTAIN FOREIGN POWER

    To the Military and Civil Governors of the Provinces:—­

    (To be deciphered personally with the Council of State Code)

A certain foreign power, under the pretext that the Chinese people are not of one mind and that troubles are to be apprehended, has lately forced England and Russia to take part in tendering advice to China.  In truth, all foreign nations know perfectly well that there will be no trouble, and they are obliged to follow the example of that power.  If we accept the advice of other Powers concerning our domestic affairs and postpone the