all our citizens should go on peacefully in their daily vocations with the view to obtain mutual benefit.  Let not your doubts and suspicions hinder you in your work.  All the officials should on their part be faithful at their posts and maintain to the best of their ability peace and order in their localities, so that the ambition of the Great President to work for the welfare of the people may thus be realized.  Besides forwarding the memorial of the principal representatives of the Convention of the Representatives of Citizens and that of the provinces and special administrative area to the Cheng Shih Tang and publishing the same by a mandate, I have the honour to notify the acting Li Fan Yuan as the principal representatives of the Convention of the Representatives of Citizens, to this effect.

Cautious to the end, it will be seen that Yuan Shih-kai’s very acceptance is so worded as to convey the idea that he is being forced to a course of action which is against his better instincts.  There is no word of what came to be called the Grand Ceremony i. e. the enthronement.  That matter is carefully left in abeyance and the government departments simply told to make the necessary preparations.  The attitude of Peking officialdom is well-illustrated in a circular telegram dispatched to the provinces three days later, the analysis of Japan’s relationship to the Entente Powers being particularly revealing.  The obsequious note which pervades this document is also particularly noticeable and shows how deeply the canker of sycophancy had now eaten in.

Code telegram dated December 14, 1915, from the office of Commander-in-chief of the land and naval forces, respecting China’s attitude towards foreign nations

To the Military and Civil Governors of the Provinces:—­(To be deciphered with the Hua Code)

On the 11th inst. the acting Legislature Council submitted a memorial to the Emperor, reporting on the number of votes cast by the people in favour of a monarchy and the letters of nomination of Yuan Shih-kai as Emperor received from all parts of the country, and begged that he would ascend the Throne at an early date.  His Majesty was, however, so modest as to decline.  The Council presented a second memorial couched in the most entreating terms, and received an order to the effect that all the ministries and departments were to make the necessary preparations for the enthronement.  The details of this decision appeared in the Presidential Orders of the past few days, so need not be repeated now.

The people are unanimously of the opinion that in a republic the foundation of the state is very apt to be shaken and the policy of the government to be changed; and that consequently there is no possibility of enjoying everlasting peace and prosperity, nor any hope for the nation to become powerful.  Now that the form of the state has been decided in favour of a monarchy and the person who is to sit on the Throne agreed upon, the country is placed on a secure basis, and the way to national prosperity and strength is thus paved.