Office of the Historian

793.003/738: Telegram

The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State

[Paraphrase]
Shanghai, June 23, 1931—1 p.m.
[Received June 23—5:20 a.m.]

[Here follows report of conversation based on the Minister’s memorandum dated June 21, 1931, printed on page 881.]

(3) From my conversations with the Japanese Chargé, I am of the opinion that his Government will be unyielding insofar as Manchuria is concerned in regard to what is considered to be Japan’s position there as legitimized by the treaties of 1915.77 Once Shigemitsu stated [Page 883] to me that if only China south of the Great Wall were concerned, this would not be so difficult a matter to solve.

Johnson
  1. Signed at Peking, May 25, 1915, Foreign Relations, 1915, pp. 171–177.↩