793.94/4201: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Forbes) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 15—9:30 a.m.]
67. The Foreign Minister received five Ambassadors, German, Italian, French, American and British at 4 o’clock this afternoon.
He stated he was going to give a frank exposition of the Japanese position in Shanghai. The Ninth Division had already arrived and the landing would be completed by tomorrow, at which time they [would] have 15,000 land troops and 3,000 marines. The Chinese Nineteenth Army Corps of 31,000 men, the officers being wholly Cantonese, was stationed from the Chapei region all the way to Woosung and was continuing an offensive and defensive attitude and claiming that they had scored a victory over the Japanese marines which was being used as propaganda and causing great uneasiness among Japanese citizens in various Chinese cities throughout the south of China as far as Canton.
In reply to a question, he said emphatically that the Japanese had no intention of sending troops to any of these cities; that on the contrary they were determined not to.
He gave a brief résumé of the effect during several months of the presence of this Cantonese army near Shanghai and Nanking and said that their officers seemed now to have what he called a “desperate psychology” and had led the Chinese Army to believe they had won a victory, a claim which he explained was due to the defensive attitude and insufficient numbers of Japanese marines.
He said: “It is believed that the Japanese Army will demand the Chinese Army to withdraw and that this step was necessary because so long as they remained where they were they menaced the security of the Settlement and Japanese resident nationals.” He said that if the demand was not accepted he presaged a clash and an attack by [Page 194] the Japanese Army, but stated that the Chinese Army, if they would withdraw, or after they had been driven back a reasonable distance (which he defined as the range of the Chinese cannon), would not be followed up and at that time the Japanese may enter upon negotiations for the establishment of a zone.
He disclaimed absolutely any project on the part of the Japanese Government to move toward the establishment of neutral zones around any other cities.