Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1912

File No. 893.00/903.

The Secretary of State to the American Minister.

[Telegram.—Paraphrase.]

Department of State,
Washington, January 9, 1912.

Communicate¹ the following to the Chinese Government and to your colleagues:

The Government of the United States has been informed by the Legation that the representatives of the powers believed it expedient, in regard to keeping open the railroad to Peking, that the United States should send a regiment comprising some 1,200 men, and that this was acquiesced in by the Chinese Government. The Government of the United States was prepared to take this action in pursuance of the protocols, on the basis of this fresh accord. But it is now informed by the Legation that the situation on the railroad is less acute and that the Chinese Government expects to be able to keep the road open. Consequently the American Government understands that to send only 500 troops will be satisfactory for the present, and orders to this effect have been issued.

Knox.

1. This was done on the 11th, by notes verbales, the text of which was sent to the Department on the 16th in dispatch 398. (File No. 893.00/1039.)