File No. 893.51/907.
The Secretary of State to the Chinese Minister.
The Department of State was reluctantly compelled to conclude from the information it received that the contract for the so-called Belgian loan signed on March 14 last was a material contravention of the terms of the agreement signed on March 9 with the group composed of American and other bankers, and accordingly instructed the American Minister at Peking to join the other representatives concerned in protesting against the said contract.
Since the cancellation of the Belgian contract by the Chinese Government the Department of State has however, out of regard for its traditional friendship and the critical conditions existing in China, consistently exerted its good offices to induce the interested bankers to advance, on terms mutually acceptable, the sums required to meet the immediate administrative necessities of the Chinese Government pending the negotiation by that Government and the bankers of a comprehensive loan for reorganization purposes.
Washington , May 29, 1912.