793.94/4821: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Consul General at Shanghai (Cunningham)
106. For the Minister. Your March 18, 3 p.m. It is of course not within the Department’s province to make suggestions to the League Commission. However, the American Government has a direct concern with regard to what happens both in relation to the Shanghai situation and the Manchuria situation, together with the China-Japan problem as a whole. It appears to the Department that the problem of liquidating the military situation at Shanghai is being adequately attended to by you and your conferees, representing the principal powers concerned. It occurs to the Department that the Commission, if it permits itself to be diverted from its expressly authorized mission and to become preoccupied with this problem, would, first, perhaps complicate rather than simplify the problem at Shanghai, and, second, by delay in addressing itself to the Manchuria problem, be playing [Page 601] directly into Japan’s hand. You are in a much better position than is the Department to judge what useful contribution, if any, the League Commission may be able to make by remaining in Shanghai. If, however, your view in any way coincides with the above, it is suggested that you informally and on your own account point out to General McCoy in confidence these aspects of the matter.