793.94/2008: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Neville) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 8—7:04 a.m.]
178. The General Staff has issued an information bulletin to foreign military attachés stating that the banditry and atrocities committed by the defeated Chinese troops in Manchuria make it impossible to withdraw [Page 15] the Japanese Army to their original stations or even to the contiguous territory; that any further withdrawal would aggravate the present situation. A proclamation to this effect was made by the commander of the troops in Manchuria and is declared to be in complete accordance with the view of the General Staff.
I believe that the Japanese Government is becoming increasingly irritated and apprehensive of developments in China and may resort to further measures to protect the lives of Japanese there. I have just been informed orally by the Foreign Office that a note is being sent to Nanking complaining of the anti-Japanese activities in intramural China.25
Repeated to Peiping.
- See infra.↩