In the
meantime we will proceed slowly and surely with the enthronement,
as it involves many ceremonies and diplomatic etiquette. In this
way both our domestic and our foreign policies will remain
unchanged.
We hope you will comprehend our ideas and treat them as strictly
confidential.
(Signed) Office of the Commander-in-Chief of the Land and Naval
Force.
After this one last step remained to be taken--it was necessary to
burn all the incriminating evidence. On the 21st December, the
last circular telegram in connection with this extraordinary
business was dispatched from Peking, a delightful naivete being
displayed regarding the possibility of certain letters and
telegrams having transgressed the bounds of the law. All such
delinquencies are to be mercifully wiped out by the simple and
admirable method of invoking the help of the kitchen-fires. And in
this appropriate way does the monster-play end.
CODE TELEGRAM DATED DECEMBER 21, 1915, FROM THE NATIONAL
CONVENTION BUREAU, ORDERING THE DESTRUCTION OF DOCUMENTS CONNECTED
WITH THE ELECTIONS
To the Military and Civil Governors of the Provinces, the Military
Commissioners at Foochow and Kweiyang; the Military Commandants at
Changteh, Kweihuating, and Kalgan; and the Commissioner of Defence
at Tachienlu:--
(To be deciphered with the Hua Code)
The change in the form of the state is now happily accomplished.
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