793.94/6201
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 22.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith four memoranda of conversations82 I have recently had with various Chinese personages regarding Sino-Japanese relations and their effect on the local situation.
On March 16th and 20th I called on General Ho Ying-chin, Minister of War, who has been appointed to take Marshal Chang Hsuehliang’s place as head of the Peiping Military Council. On both occasions he seemed anxious to know whether I thought that the Japanese [Page 262] would come south of the Great Wall, and he stated that the Chinese intended to resist any further advance.
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Dr. H. H. Kung, ex-Minister of Industries and a brother-in-law of General Chiang Kai-shek, called on me on March 20th on his return from Europe and the United States. He said that the fact that diplomatic relations between China and Japan continued permitted the Japanese to know every move the Chinese planned or made; on the other hand, even if relations were broken off the Japanese still had their concessions at Tientsin and Hankow and were represented in the International Settlement in Shanghai. Dr. Kung also said he could not understand why the League was unwilling to impose sanctions, or why the United States was unwilling to join in making them effective. He thought economic sanctions would stop the Japanese at once.
Respectfully yours,
- None printed.↩