793.94/1836: Telegram
The Chargé in Japan (Neville) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 23—5:53 a.m.]
159. The Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs told me today that the total of Japanese troops in Manchuria was less than 15,000 and within the number allowed as railway guards by treaty. The only places occupied outside the railway zone were Mukden and Kirin. In both places the object was to disarm Chinese who had assembled there. [Page 43] The troops have been withdrawn from Kirin and would be from Mukden as soon as the civil authorities were prepared to take it over.
It seems that T. V. Soong personally made a proposal to the Japanese Minister to suggest a joint Chinese-Japanese commission to investigate the points at issue. This was acceptable to Japan, but the Vice Minister told me that Soong had lost his early enthusiasm and was not supporting the plan with his colleagues at Nanking. He added that the occupation in any case would not necessarily depend upon a solution of all points at issue.
The British Ambassador tells me that Baron Shidehara45 gave him the same information.
Repeated to Peiping.
- Baron Kijuro Shidehara, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs.↩