793.94/3679: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Forbes) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 28—11:30 a.m.]
26. [Paraphrase.] With reference to the telegrams from the Department numbers 25, January 27, 2 p.m., and 26, January 27, 5 p.m. [Page 164] The Foreign Minister received me at 6:30 and I gave him orally with slight intentional paraphrasing the full text of both your messages. Most of it he insisted upon taking down in longhand. Then he read it over. That he had it clearly was evident and his reply was: [End of paraphrase.]
First, that he gave the solemn assurance of his Government that there was no intention whatever of interference with the rights or interests of any foreign power in Shanghai, and incidentally he stated that there was no intention whatever of Japanese forces operating in the vicinity of Chenju where the radio station is situated. In regard to procedure he informed me that the proper formalities had been observed with the local authorities to secure permission for landing Japanese forces. He described the plight of the Japanese merchants and residents in Shanghai as deplorable and stated that the anti-Japanese movement in Shanghai and throughout China had reached an “extremity.”
He asked me, to express to my Government his appreciation of the friendly sentiment expressed in your communication and to assure it that they would take especial care of non-interference with any American interests and rights.
He spoke of the anti-Japanese agitation throughout China and said it had been going on much longer than has the campaign in Manchuria and that there were anti-Japanese movements and incidents of which he had received, while in Geneva, lists running back through the whole of year and not confined at all to Manchuria, but also in China proper and along the Yangtze.
He said that at 4 o’clock this afternoon he received a communication from Shanghai advising him that the Chinese had accepted the four demands which the Japanese Consul had made by his, the Foreign Minister’s, instructions.
He added that the Japanese people were so stirred up by the organized anti-Japanese movement in China that failure to take a firm stand in dealing with it would result in the immediate fall of any cabinet.
When he spoke of the Japanese demand for reparations for the Japanese killed in Shanghai, I asked him if the Japanese were proposing to pay reparations for the killing of Chinese policemen and damage done by the Japanese mob, to which he replied: That was their intention.
Asked in regard to the movement of troops to Harbin,1a he said that was temporary but there had been an attack made and looting of Japanese hospitals, newspaper offices, and a number of residences, [Page 165] and that several Japanese had been killed and a number taken into custody by Chinese troops. Asked if it was expected to withdraw them shortly, he replied he hoped so.