793.94/2141
The Chinese Chargé (Yung Kwai) to the Secretary of State77
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I am instructed to communicate to you the reply of the Chinese Government to the note of the American Government dated September 24, 1931, as follows:78
“The Chinese Government received yesterday afternoon the communication from the American Government regarding the present situation in China, transmitted from Peiping by the American Minister to China.
“The Chinese Government and people are gratified to learn that the Government and people of the United States, feeling themselves much interested in the situation created in China by the action of Japanese troops, desire that principles and methods of peace, instead of armed force, should be used in the relations between China and Japan, as between any other civilized states. It is the conviction of the Chinese Government that, in addressing its notes to the Chinese and Japanese Governments, (that) the American Government has been prompted by the earnest desire to uphold, as one of the signatory powers, the sanctity of those international treaties, particularly the Treaty for the Renunciation of War signed at Paris in 1928, which bind the parties not to have recourse to war but to use pacific means in their relations with one another.
“As a result of the aggressive movements of the Japanese troops, our territory has been invaded, our cities and towns have been occupied, and in certain cases ransacked, our public officers and innocent citizens have been injured, insulted and murdered. Even on the very day when the American Government despatched its identic notes to the Chinese and Japanese Governments, advising restraint from further hostilities, Chinese passenger trains carrying refugees on the Peiping-Liaoning (Peking-Mukden) Railway were attacked by bombs and machine gun fire from Japanese military aeroplanes, which resulted in many casualties. Thus, while the Japanese Government declares that it has taken all measures to prevent the aggravation of the situation and that the troops will be forthwith withdrawn from the occupied areas, (and) free acts of war are still being committed by the Japanese troops. In spite of such circumstances, the entire Chinese Nation has been exhorted to maintain a dignified [Page 82] calm, in the belief that the delinquent party will render a full account for its wanton acts to all the civilized states, under the principle of the sanctity of international treaties for the maintenance of peace.
“The Chinese Government can conceive no other way to satisfy the requirements of international law and international agreements, when international law and international agreements have already been trampled under foot, than for Japan to withdraw her troops immediately and completely from the occupied areas and to give full redress to the aggrieved party, the Chinese Government and the Chinese people.
“It is the earnest hope of the Chinese Government that most effective means will be promptly taken for maintaining the dignity and inviolability of the international treaties above referred to, so that all efforts heretofore made by the various powers, especially by the United States for the preservation of peace, might not be in vain.”
Accept [etc.]
- Corrected copy of note handed by the Chinese Chargé to Mr. Ransford S. Miller of the Division of Far Eastern Affairs on October 1, in substitution for copy bearing same date which was handed to the Secretary of State by the Chinese Chargé on September 28 (793.94/1930).↩
- Italics denote corrections; italics in parentheses denote erroneous use.↩