793.94/8713: Telegram

The Ambassador in Japan ( Grew ) to the Secretary of State

190. Embassy’s 189, July 12, noon.2

1.
A Foreign Office official informed us this afternoon that the Cabinet had decided to despatch reenforcements to China and had requested the Imperial sanction to do so in the event the agreement is not observed by the Chinese.3
2.
In a conversation with a member of the Embassy staff at a lunchson given today by the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, the latter confirmed the news that an agreement providing for the withdrawal of Chinese and Japanese troops from the Yungting River had been [Page 316] signed by the local negotiators last night. Horinouchi added that the higher officers of the 29th Chinese Army would probably do their best to carry out the agreement but he expressed doubt as to whether they would be able to control certain elements among their troops.
3.
Kishi, the private secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, stated to the same member of the Embassy staff that the clashes which occurred during the night of June [July?] 10 had resulted partly from the fact that both the Chinese and the Japanese soldiers had been ignorant of the exact terms of the oral agreements reached. He expressed the belief that now that the withdrawal agreement was in writing there would be less likelihood of future clashes.

Repeated to Peiping.

Grew
  1. Not printed.
  2. For substance of the agreement of July 11, see memorandum by the Ambassador in Japan, July 22, 1937, p. 333.