793.94/11026
The American Embassy in Japan to the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Aide-mémoire
On several recent occasions and through different channels, the attention of the Japanese Government has been earnestly invited to the use of the International Settlement at Shanghai by the Japanese forces as a military base. On August 23, with the arrival at and near Shanghai of contingents of the Japanese Army, the operations which were conducted up to that time by the Japanese naval landing force as part of the defense forces of the International Settlement, became a campaign [Page 379] on a large scale against the Chinese military forces in an extensive area outside the International Settlement. Since the date above mentioned, the wharves of the Hongkew section have been the main base for unloading supplies and troops and evacuating the wounded. According to authoritative reports, fifteen Japanese transports used the docks on the three days September 22 to September 24, four thousand troops having been landed on one of these days.
On September 15 the Consular Body at Shanghai caused oral representations to be made on this subject to the Japanese Consul General, who replied that the Japanese landing party being stationed in Shanghai for the protection of Japanese interests has the right, equally with other foreign military units, to land supplies and reenforcements, and that the landing party or any other Japanese armed force was or would be acting only in self-defense.
In the opinion of the American Government, the present Japanese military operations at Shanghai—their extent, place, and seeming objectives—cannot with warrant be construed as a means of defense of the Settlement. The American Government, accordingly, feels strongly that the Japanese military forces should refrain from using any portion of the Settlement as a base for disembarking Japanese troops and unloading military supplies to be employed outside the Settlement in major operations against Chinese troops, and that the Settlement should not be used in any way as a base or channel for military operations of any character except such as are exclusively for the protection and defense of the Settlement.
It is the further opinion of the American Government that, as the Settlement is an area in which by treaties and agreements a number of countries, including Japan and the United States, have common rights and interests, its use as a base for military operations conducted outside the Settlement is not in keeping with the spirit of those agreements, and that it unwarrantably endangers the rights and interests of all those countries, including the United States, which possess in common those rights and interests.