893.102S/2140
Oral and Informal Statement by the Counselor of Embassy in Japan (Dooman), June 19, 1940 65
Of late, and no doubt due to some extent to the intensification and spread of hostilities in Europe, there has been a deluge of rumors in regard to the International Settlement and French Concession at Shanghai. Amongst these was a baseless report released by Domei on June 5 that negotiations were in progress looking towards the transfer from the French to the American authorities of administrative and police duties in the French Concession. Other rumors have been to the effect that the Japanese military forces at Shanghai might attempt to take over the International Settlement and the French Concession. Needless to say, the Government of the United States does not credit these rumors. In view, however, of the persistence of the rumors and of the consequent uneasiness amongst American citizens and others [Page 81] at Shanghai, the Government of the United States offers for consideration by the Japanese Government the suggestion that the alarm caused by those rumors would be dispelled, and reassurance to the foreign communities at Shanghai would be afforded if the Japanese authorities were to make a public statement, in whatever manner they might deem appropriate, in reference to the foreign-administered areas at Shanghai along the general lines of the clear and categorical assurances given by the Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs to the American Ambassador at Tokyo on May 13, 1939.66