793.94/6008: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received March 9—7:10 a.m.]
230. Following from Consul General Nanking:
“March 9, 11 a.m. Lo50 told me March 8, 11 p.m., that Suma51 has been urging him as a man of courage to consent to some settlement with Japan. Lo steadily refused on the ground that no settlement could be permanent while Japan held recently occupied territory. Lo said he did not want to follow example of Li Hung-chang who yielded to Japan after Chinese-Japanese war and then treated with Russia with the result there was a Russian-Japanese war. He told Suma the only settlement he would consent to would be one insuring permanently friendly relations between all parties concerned.”