We propose that the following steps be taken after the votes have been duly polled:—­

(1) After the form of the state has been put to the vote, the result should be reported to the sovereign (meaning Yuan-shihkai) and to the Administrative Council in the name of the General Convention of the Citizens’ Representatives.

(2) In the telegrams to be sent by the General Convention of the Citizens’ Representatives for nominating the emperor, the following words should be specifically used:  “We respectfully nominate the present President Yuan Shih-kai as Emperor of the Chinese Empire.”

(3) The telegrams investing the Administrative Council with general powers to act on behalf of the General Convention of the Citizens’ Representatives should be dispatched in the name of the General Convention of the Citizens of the Provinces.

The drafts of the dispatches under the above-mentioned three heads will be wired to you beforehand.  As soon as the votes are cast, these are to be shown to the representatives, who will sign them after perusal.  Peking should be immediately informed by telegram.

As for the telegrams to be sent by the commercial, military, and political bodies, they should bear as many signatures as possible, and be wired to the Central Government within three days after the voting.

When the enthronement is promulgated by edict, letters of congratulation from the General Convention of the Citizens’ Representatives, as well as from the commercial, military, and political bodies, will also have to be sent in.  You are therefore requested to draw up these letters in advance.

This is specially wired for your information beforehand.  The details will be communicated by letter.

In ordinary circumstances it would have been thought that sufficiently implicit instructions had already been given to permit leaving the matter in the hands of the provincial authorities.  Great anxiety, however, was beginning to reign in Peking owing to continual rumours that dangerous opposition, both internal and external, was developing.  It was therefore held necessary to clinch the matter in such a way that no possible questions should be raised later.  Accordingly, before the end of October—­and only two days before the “advice” was tendered by Japan and her Allies,—­the following additional instructions were telegraphed wholesale to the provinces, being purposely designed to make it absolutely impossible for any slip to occur between cup and lip.  The careful student will not fail to notice in these remarkable messages that as the game develops, all disguise is thrown to the four winds, and the central and only important point, namely the prompt election and enthronement of Yuan Shih-kai as Emperor, insisted on with almost indecent directness, every possible precaution being taken to secure that end: 

Code telegram dated October 26, 1915, from CUU chi-CUUN, minister of the interior, et alia, respecting the nomination of yuan shih-kai as emperor