793.94/5573: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
1148. Your 320, September 19, 3 p.m. British Chargé d’Affaires was instructed by his Government to comment upon suggestions made to British Government by the Department.6 He and I and French Minister discussed the question of neutralization of Peiping and its environments along the following lines: [Page 577]
- (a)
- The move should be made by doyen of the Diplomatic Corps and given utmost publicity.
- (b)
- Preliminary sounding as to acceptability of project both in Tokyo and here might be desirable but no official step should be taken till danger is imminent.
- (c)
- Legation guards should undertake no commitment outside of quarter.
- (d)
- Maintenance of order in Peiping should be sole responsibility of Chinese police.
- (e)
- Japanese nationals should be evacuated either to the quarter itself or away from Peiping altogether.
- (f)
- International commission should be set up on Shanghai analogy.
- (g)
- There should be some understanding as to when arrangement ceases, say, when commission (see f above) consider hostilities have ceased.
We also submitted question to our Military Attachés who stated among other things that if any action were taken it should be carried out as soon as possible for there is no guarantee that we shall have sufficient notice to prevent a disaster if we delay this action until the moment of hostilities.
In other words it was the considered view of our Military Attachés that it would be impracticable to wait until the hostilities begin or appear imminent to suggest to the Chinese Government and Japanese Government that they enter into an agreement for the neutralization of Peiping and its environments.
My French colleague, the British Chargé and I agreed:
- (A)
- That Wellington Koo was the only local source for a suggestion of neutralization of the city of Peiping and he is now gone. We do not know the attitude of responsible local Chinese on this question and from our knowledge and experience of Japanese actions we believe that the Japanese would be loath to enter into a discussion of an arrangement for neutralization of Peiping and its environs and thus forego the advantage of an attack.
- (B)
- There is at present no indication of any intention on the part of the Japanese to take action in this area.
- (C)
- It would be difficult for the Diplomatic Body acting through the doyen to initiate discussions with the Japanese at this time and we believe that if we await imminence of an attack it will be very difficult to commence negotiations.
- (D)
- It is therefore our conclusion that the only alternative left is the one previously suggested, namely, that if and when hostilities begin or seem imminent we approach both Governments calling their attention to the existence of diplomatic quarter and demanding its protection.