Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1932, The Far East, Volume III

793.94/5132: Telegram

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

Shanghai, April 28, 1932—9 p.m.
[Received 10:55 p.m.²]

My April 23, 2 p.m., and April 26, noon.

1. At meeting of four colleagues this morning British Minister read to us a telegram from Geneva dated April 27th which contained the following:

“In order to bring matters to a conclusion amendment to draft armistice suggested by you must first be agreed to by both parties. Draft armistice will then come before Committee of Nineteen with the following words added at the end of annex 4: ‘and is authorized to call attention to any neglect in the carrying out of provisions of the three articles mentioned above’. Committee will then pass a resofution in article 11 of which they will take note of agreement thus reached by parties.”

2. He also read to us a telegram from Geneva dated April 28th stating that text of article 11 of resolution which it was now proposed that Committee would adopt would be as follows:

“11. Takes note of fact that powers as defined in annex 4 of draft agreement of Commission which is to watch carrying out of article No. 1, article No. 2 and article No. 3 of that agreement, include authority to call attention in accordance with Commission’s decisions, taken in such manner as is provided in said annex to any neglect in carrying out and [any] of provisions of articles mentioned above.”

3. The above indicated that Committee of Nineteen at Geneva was waiting upon negotiators here formally to accept proposed amendment as part of draft agreement before adopting resolution. Lampson and I therefore called upon Quo at noon today and got him to agree to meet with Shigemitsu at 3 this afternoon for the purpose of accepting formally amendment to annex 4.

4. Accordingly at 3 p.m. Shigemitsu and Quo met in the presence of representatives of four friendly powers and accepted formally the amendments suggested above. This information is being conveyed to Geneva by Lampson.

5. In the course of one meeting today Quo suggested that the first 15 words of the first sentence of article No. 3 of draft agreement (see my telegram March 28, 9 p.m.) “in accordance with the program regulating withdrawal as shown in annex 2 of this agreement” be dropped. Shigemitsu consented to this and it was then agreed that annex 2 should be added to annex 3 with no change except substitution of the word “above” for the words “in annex 3” in the first sentence of annex 2. Annexes 3 and 4 will then be renumbered 2 and 3, respectively.

6. Quo objected to the words “referred to in the penultimate sentence of article 4 of the agreement” occurring at the end of the separate voluntary declaration by the Chinese Government (see my March 28, 9 p.m.) on the ground that declaration was separate and not connected with the agreement; that such was understood and that therefore reference to specific article was objectionable to the Chinese. Shigemitsu at first demurred but finally consented to refer to his Government the following words: “who take over from the evacuating Japanese forces in accordance with the arrangements for a cessation of hostilities at Shanghai” in substitution for objectionable passage.

7. Phraseology of agreement has now been entirely accepted by Shigemitsu and Quo, except for passage just quoted which should give no trouble.

8. There remains but one outstanding question now unagreed to and that is the positions of Chinese troops south of Soochow Creek and on the Pootung side of the Whangpoo River. The Japanese continue to demand that Chinese designate positions of their troops in those areas. Purpose of course is to fix Chinese troops in positions so indicated and Chinese have consistently refused to comply for they realize that agreement will fix troops at points designated for an indefinite period. Lampson and I have supported Quo in his position. We have maintained that in the beginning all discussion concerned itself with troops actually engaged in hostilities and that negotiations were for the purpose of separating these troops and bringing about a cessation of hostilities. We have supported Quo in the claims that to discuss their troops to the south of Soochow Creek and on the Pootung side of the Whangpoo is to introduce new matter into the discussion. It is our hope that with text agreed to and League resolution passed we will be able to persuade Japanese to drop this question so that it should be possible to sign the agreement early next week.

9. It is my purpose to designate the Consul General as my civilian representative on the Mixed Commission and to ask one of the military language officers in Peiping to serve as my military representative. I wish to keep Drysdale free for use in Manchuria should that seem necessary.

10. I hope that with the signature of this agreement the Department will approve my return with staff to Peiping.

Johnson

2. Telegram in two sections.