793.94/3320: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Forbes) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 26—6:22 a.m.]
280. An account of my interview with Inukai6 evidently given out from his office and substantially correct in Japanese papers 5 o’clock same afternoon. The British and French Ambassadors seem to have dealt with Nagai.
The Dutch Minister informs me there is a bitter feeling existing against us in the Japanese Army due to the conviction that their only hope of getting the Chinese Regulars to withdraw from Chinchow behind the Great Wall without fighting rests upon these conditions making them believe that they will have to get out any way. They claim that our announcement of an assurance that they would not take Chinchow has stiffened the Chinese attitude and makes it more difficult to carry on negotiations for the peaceable withdrawal which they regard as essential for the restoration of order and civil administration in Manchuria. The Nichi Nichi and Jiji editorially comment that the publication of recent Three-Power cautions against hostilities at Chinchow is likely further to stiffen Chinese opposition and make hostilities more probable.
[Paraphrase.] It is my conviction that the Japanese would far rather have these problems settled without clashing with Chinese Regulars. However, there is no doubt that the bandits are too scattered, too numerous, and too far out of control to be dealt with except by troops more or less in force. [End paraphrase.]
[Page 708]The French Ambassador has delivered to me a copy of his recent note. Please instruct whether I shall reciprocate by giving him a copy of yours contained in Department’s telegram No. 273, December 22, 9 p.m.7
Repeated to Peiping.
- See telegram No. 278, December 24, 5 p.m., from the Ambassador in Japan, Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 67.↩
- Foreign Relations, Japan, 1931–1941, vol. i, p. 65.↩