793.94/8218: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Dickover) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 3—1:10 p.m.]
203. In response to the request of the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, a member of the Embassy staff called on the Vice Minister on October 3. The Vice Minister remarked that he desired to say, in view of mischievous and misleading reports in the press abroad in regard to relations between China and Japan, that discussions between the Japanese and Chinese Governments to adjust relations and solve pending questions had not come to a substantial stage at the time the Chengtu incident11 happened and that this incident and other incidents interfered with the progress of the discussions. The Vice Minister stated that, in connection with the settlement of these questions, it is Japan’s wish that the Chinese Government take effective measures to uproot anti-Japanese movements and that the Japanese Government wishes to clear up at the same time other questions. The Vice Minister stressed the fact that these other questions are not unconditional demands but are Japanese wishes to be reached by discussion but he did not enumerate them. He added that there are no new points in the negotiations between the two countries. The Vice Minister, after referring to press reports, denied that the Japanese are asking for the rights of North China involving diplomatic, fiscal, administrative autonomy or for the right to station troops along the Yangtze River. …
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During the course of a conversation with the American Chargé d’Affaires later in the day on October 3, the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs remarked that the Japanese Government does not intend to use force or other military operations to cause China to agree to Japanese wishes and that the discussions going on with China at present are in no sense like the twenty-one demands.12 The Vice Minister stated that the only demand which Japan will insist upon is that anti-Japanese agitation and propaganda be suppressed on account of the danger of further incidents, and that, although other matters will be talked over, they will be merely desiderata designed to promote normal and more healthy relations and subject to negotiation. …
Despite reports in regard to the alarming attitude of Japanese representatives in China it is the opinion of the Embassy that the Government [Page 246] in Tokyo is limiting its efforts to objectives less extensive than those reported in newspapers abroad and is still in control of the situation.