793.94/2902: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Paraphrase]
Your 119, November 23, 6 p.m., through the Consul General at Nanking.
- (1)
- Last evening in a conversation with Dr. Wellington Koo I gave him the substance of your remarks on the Council’s proposed resolution as cabled to Ambassador Dawes.
- (2)
- I gave him also the Department’s comment on the Chinese counterproposal.
- (3)
- The not unreasonable fear is expressed by the Chinese that by the time any commission reaches Manchuria from Europe, Japan will have been in undisturbed occupation there long enough to encourage the organizing of an independent government prepared to recognize the position of Japan in Manchuria. The Chinese have hoped the League would consider this possibility and would act to forestall it.
- (4)
- I am at a loss to understand the report in Paris that I have told the Chinese Government “that the United States is ready to go much farther than the League of Nations to support the Chinese position.” At no time have I committed myself to them or to anyone else respecting the position I thought my Government would adopt on this question.
- (5)
- My understanding has been that the United States Government has been wholeheartedly supporting the efforts of the League in this matter, and this I have told the Chinese.
- (6)
- The continuing Japanese advance in Manchuria, openly in defiance of all efforts by the League and the United States to bring about an atmosphere conducive to a solution of the differences between the two countries, bears terribly on the Chinese. There was as little excuse for driving Chinese soldiers out of Tsitsihar as for seizing Mukden the night of September 18, and now we are informed of Japanese preparations to expel the Chinese from Chinchow, thereby eliminating the last vestige of Chinese control within Manchuria. In view of all the circumstances and of Japan’s commitments under the League Covenant, the Nine-Power Treaty and the Kellogg Pact, I am unable to escape the feeling that this conduct is unconscionable. The Chinese, rightly or wrongly, have looked for assistance from the nations party to the above agreements, and so far Chinese confidence in these agencies has had no result in spite of the September 30 and October 24 [Page 563] resolutions of the League. Instead of amelioration of the condition after a period of 2 months, the Chinese find Japan successfully completing the destruction of all Chinese authority in Manchuria. They have seen an utter and shameless defiance by Japan of every effort made by the League, and it would seem that actually Japan has timed its every advance in a way so as to indicate to China and the world the low esteem in which it holds the League of Nations and world opinion. Great restraint, it seems to me, has been and is being exercised by the Chinese in the face of such provocation as they have had, and most_ emphatically do I feel that the powers owe it to themselves to take | measures in all seriousness to prevent not only the complete destruction of confidence in the intentions and support behind the League Covenant, the Washington treaties, and the Anti-War Pact, but also the complete destruction of Chinese Government.
- (7)
- The Chinese are in desperation. Japanese activities, unrestrained by the rest of the world, are fanning among the younger Chinese generations hatreds which will some day produce very dangerous fruit. Whatever Japan’s grievances may have been against China before September 18, there is nothing I know of done by China since then which would justify the program Japan has insisted upon following.
Johnson
- Telegram In two sections.↩