793.94/2911: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 26—12:40 p.m.]
Your 120, November 25, 4 p.m., to the Consul General at Nanking. The substance of this message I communicated this evening to Dr. Wellington Koo. I carefully pointed out that this was not formal advice but a friendly suggestion on your part. He made a note of what I said. Koo stated that for the Nanking Government to withdraw Chinese troops from Chinchow would be very difficult in the face of the popular attitude at present. He called attention to the fact that this city of Nanking is at this very moment full of thousands of students arrived from Shanghai, Hangchow, and other places, while still more are coming, all of them demanding that President Chiang Kai-shek sign an undertaking to proceed to the north and to stay there until the recovery of occupied territory. Koo referred also to the League’s unwillingness to fix a time limit for the evacuation of Japanese troops from Manchuria, and he said the Government was getting such a demand from all sides in China. To agree to less here would involve great difficulties. Again Koo expressed himself as quite concerned over the movement to set up an independent régime in Manchuria; he said this was gaining ground.