793.94/5929: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received February 27—7:30 a.m.]
189. [1.] Informant mentioned in Legation’s 188, February 27, 3 p.m., stated incidentally that the Chinese had good reason to believe [Page 214] that the Japanese were preparing a thrust into the Lwan River triangle south of the Great Wall which would enable them to operate against Chengteh from the southeast and also cut off communications between Peiping and Chengteh. He thought Japan was anxious to add the Lwan River triangle to Manchukuo as affording a better natural boundary than the Great Wall.
2. Similar information has also reached the Legation indirectly from a Japanese news source according to which it would take the Japanese at least a month to reach Chengteh unless they also moved up the Lwan River.