793.94/3729: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 30—10:03 a.m.]
158. Following telegram has been sent to Shanghai:
“January 30, 5 p.m.
1. Your January 29, 4 p.m. Japanese state that their action in occupying Chapei was a ‘measure for the protection of their nationals and a part of the general definite [defense?] scheme of the Settlement; that it was not connected with the demands.’
[Page 118]Tokyo’s January 29, 3 [5?] p.m. to the Department: Japanese Navy Department states that the landing of Japanese forces ‘was with an understanding with the Shanghai municipal authorities to protect Japanese residents outside Settlement zone.’
2. If you consider the above statement an accurate one and if you consider the Japanese action, even although ill-advised, to have been motivated as above described it does not seem to me that the complaint of the Chinese members of the Council that the Japanese were using the Settlement as a base of operations would be well founded. (Your January 29, 6 p.m., paragraph 1.) If, however, you consider the Japanese contention incorrect as to fact and that their primary purpose was to overawe the Chinese in the Shanghai area in order to carry out their private objectives in China, it would then seem to me that the Chinese had a just complaint that the Settlement was being used as a base against them. It should seem obvious to the Japanese that if their troops traverse the Settlement with the object above stated they are not respecting Settlement neutrality. (Your January 29, 7 p.m., paragraph 6 of Japanese statement.)
3. Please submit your views by confidential code in regard to foregoing and as to the likelihood of this issue becoming an urgent one.”