793.94/2541: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
892. At 1 a.m. I received a message from Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang informing me that serious fighting was in progress in Tientsin between Chinese and Japanese. As his office had no details I immediately tried to telephone to the Consulate General and sent radio to Commanding Officer, Fifteenth Infantry, but received no reply. I telephoned to both later this morning and obtained somewhat conflicting reports, except that all was quiet now. U. S. S. Tulsa at Tangku replied to radio it had no information.
Wellington Koo just called and stated that he and the Young Marshal felt the incidents of last night (concerning which I shall report fully when I have more details) had been instigated by the Japanese in the hope of overthrowing the local government and creating a confused situation warranting increase in Japanese forces and perhaps repetition of Mukden coup. He requests me to suggest to the Department on behalf of Young Marshal the advisability of having the principal consular officers in Tientsin instructed to make immediate impartial investigation of all circumstances and to make representations to the Japanese authorities to prevent recurrence of such events. [Page 395] In the meantime Chinese troops and police have been given strict orders not to fire on Japanese in uniform and in compliance with the Japanese demand all Chinese police have been withdrawn 300 meters from Japanese concession. Koo fears this arrangement cannot be prolonged indefinitely.
Repeated to Shanghai.
- Telegram in two sections.↩