703.94/5717: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 8—8:22 a.m.]
32. The following has been received from Chinwangtao:
Arrived Chinwangtao on the night of the 5th and called on General Ho Chu-kuo at his headquarters north of Chinwangtao this morning. He had us lunch with him and was very cordial. The forces under his command include the Ninth, the Twentieth, independent Brigades here; Nineteenth Brigade in Jehol, and Fifteenth Brigade from Kalgan on the way, and the Fifteenth Field Artillery Regiment of the Seventh Brigade at Peiyuan. General Ho stated that he has been approached by the Japanese here for negotiation on board a British warship with a view to treating the Shanhaikwan incident as a local affair which would seem to indicate that they do not desire to advance farther. He referred the request to Peiping but has received no reply to date. General Ho plans to retain the status quo. He will not attempt to retake Shanhaikwan but will resist to the last, any Japanese attempt to advance on his present line, which runs north and south about midway between Shanhaikwan and Chinwangtao. In the fighting at Shanhaikwan, the Japanese made effective use of tanks and completely wiped out a battalion of the Six Hundred Twenty-sixth Regiment which fought a delaying action to permit evacuation of other troops and local population. The battalion commander and three company commanders are reported killed and one wounded. The railroad hospital at Shanhaikwan is reported by the Peiping-Mukden Railroad people to contain about a hundred Japanese casualties. Fire of naval vessels was effective in Shanhaikwan. General Ho believed that attack on Shanhaikwan is consequential to dispatch of the Nineteenth Brigade into Jehol. Rumors of Third Cavalry Brigade raid beyond the Great Wall and bombardment of Chinwangtao are false. We expect to go to Shanhaikwan today, arrangements having been made with the local Japanese garrison commander who is to notify the Japanese at Shanhaikwan of our arrival. There is one Japanese cruiser and one destroyer at Chinwangtao and two British ships. Signed Gluckman.34
Repeated to Tokyo, to Nanking by mail.
- Capt. A. Gluckman, language officer, Legation In China.↩