793.94/2967c: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Japan (Forbes)
249. I learn from Paris that there are now at Chinchow some 11 observers, representing various Governments, including the British, [Page 581] French, and Italian. The American Military Attaché arrived there from Peiping on November 24.
Colonel Margetts has received instructions “to cooperate fully with the other foreign military observers there in examining the possibility that some means may be found which is calculated to prevent any troop collision between the Chinese and Japanese in the Chinchow region and that liaison be established with the military commanders of both forces with a view to making the necessary arrangements.” I understand Colonel McIlroy now is at Mukden, and if it can be arranged without embarrassment or inconvenience, I should like him to join Margetts and to cooperate with the latter on the mission above indicated and on the general mission of observation. The War Department, which I consulted, agrees with me in hoping that McIlroy will do this, provided he feels, in his careful discretion, he can do it without embarrassing his relations with the Japanese and the mission in which he is, upon their invitation, engaged. He should report his decision here.
You will please closely paraphrase this message to McIlroy, transmitting to him such instructions as you may desire to add.