761.9311/8: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 17—3:15 a.m.]
442. Reuter from Nanking 16th:
“An unusual article which if signed by Soviet authorities would automatically prevent sale of Chinese Eastern Railway and maintenance of official relations with Manchukuo is included in proposed terms of the Sino-Russian Pact of Nonaggression. Draft containing this article has been handed by Nanking Foreign Ministry to Soviet Ambassador there who has forwarded it to Moscow. Article concerned provides for ‘refusal of any recognition de jure or de facto of situation created by aggression on the part of a third power.’”