793.94/4265
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The Japanese Ambassador came in to see me. He said that he came not by instruction but on his own initiative to tell me what the Japanese were doing. He said that the first land forces were landed at Woosung on February 7 and the following day; that this was a mixed brigade from the Twelfth Division; that the second installment of their land troops was the Ninth Division which was landed on the 13th, 14th and 15th of February. He told me that no other land forces were to be landed. I pressed him categorically on this landing of forces and asked him if this applied to all of China and was he sure that no other land forces would be landed elsewhere than at Shanghai. He replied that he was.
The Ambassador then told me that there were a number of rumors that he wished to deny. He said that the Japanese were not seeking any exclusive concession at Shanghai; that they had no idea of it whatever; that they asked for nothing more than their rights in the International Settlement. He told me that his Government was not proposing to create any neutral zone or demilitarized zone at any other place in China than Shanghai and that the report to that effect recently published was only the statement of a very low official in the Foreign Office. I laughed at this and he then said that it was the same official that had previously made trouble. I then told him that I should not have given much attention to the statement by the spokesman of the Foreign Office if it had occurred by itself and in normal times but that here it fitted in too closely with other statements and other things that the Japanese were doing to be disregarded. I reminded the Ambassador how the Japanese Government had rejected the fifth point of the four Powers in their effort at good offices by stating that they would not permit any representative of a third power to participate in any negotiations as to Manchuria. I called his attention to the fact that we and the British and the French who made the [Page 195] suggestions were signatories of the Nine-Power Pact23 and that we considered that we had a right to participate in discussions about that pact concerning all of China, including Manchuria. He stated that that was true, and he said that the Japanese had no intention of disregarding or not faithfully abiding by the Nine-Power Pact; that Japan had scrupulously kept her treaties. I again told him that the difficulty was that the facts here were against it and that the events occurring at Shanghai were difficult to reconcile with the covenants of the Nine-Power Pact and therefore I felt that the statements of the spokesman of the Foreign Office at Tokyo to the effect that Japan wished to repeal the Nine-Power Pact must be given more weight than they would in normal times.
I then told him that I had heard of the landing of the troops which he spoke of and that they were being landed in the Settlement contrary to the previous promise of the Japanese Consul General after our protest; that I regarded this as a very serious matter because it would inevitably provoke, and justly provoke, the resentment and reprisals of the Chinese when they found that they were being attacked by Japanese using the International Settlement as a base; that I was proposing to protest again about that publicly and to notify the Japanese Government that we proposed to hold them financially responsible for all damages which we suffered from such use of the Settlement as a base for military operations. He at once became very much interested in this and wanted to know how I was going to make the protest. I told him I should make it to Tokyo but I would notify him.
I told the Ambassador that I had finally received a report on the Ringwalt case24 and I gave him a summary of what had happened, from the note which Dr. Hornbeck had placed in my hands. I told him that it was absolutely necessary for the protection of our people in the Settlement that he should see that the authority of our Consuls and Vice Consuls was protected and that their persons were protected; that Mr. Ringwalt was performing one of his duties while he was made a victim of this assault and that although the Japanese Consul General had expressed his regret to Mr. Cunningham, I thought that we should have a formal apology from the Japanese Government. The Ambassador asked me how I wanted that done; whether it would do to have it made at Shanghai to our Minister by the Japanese Minister. I said that I would prefer it here but would take into consideration the other method if they were accustomed to it; that we made no request for an indemnity but we would [Page 196] make a request for a more vigorous effort to punish the offenders. He said he would convey my representation to his Government.
- Foreign Relations, 1922, vol. i, p. 276.↩
- Arthur R. Ringwalt, American Vice Consul at Shanghai, who was attacked by Japanese civilian guards on February 11, 1932, inside the Japanese-occupied Hongkew section of the International Settlement.↩