793.94/6457
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received August 12.]
Sir: The attention of the Department is invited to the concern with which the Japanese are viewing the activities of the so-called “Christian General”, Marshal Feng Yu-hsiang, in the border province of Chahar. Marshal Feng recently commenced an independent military campaign, defeated a pro-”Manchukuo” army under General Li Shou-shen, and with the occupation of Dolonor on July 11th assumed control over a district immediately to the west of the “Manchukuo” province of Jehol, immediately north of the Peiping area, and immediately south of western Heilungkiang in “Manchukuo”. The territory under Feng’s control includes the important city of Kalgan.
[Page 381]Marshal Feng’s action is a source of great embarrassment to the Nanking Government and to the Kwantung army alike and both sides have registered vigorous protests. His activities have disturbed the comparative quiet in North China and are a menace to the Tangku Sino-Japanese Armistice Agreement.
On the Chinese side, Marshal Feng has been offered several inducements to cease his military activities, the chief inducement being the somewhat mysterious position of “Director General of Reforestation and Reclamation”. Inducements being of no avail a Chinese punitive expedition under General Lung has been despatched by the Peiping authorities to deal with Feng, but it is very questionable whether a Chinese punitive expedition will prove as efficacious as its Japanese counterpart.
On the Japanese side, the Kwantung army has not been idle. Feng, whose forces are estimated by the Japanese to number 60,000 men, controls Dolonor, some fifteen miles from the “Manchukuo” border and, facing this town just across the mountains within “Manchukuo” are three Japanese detachments which have been moved there should military action be deemed necessary. The terrain in this part of Jehol and Chahar is exceedingly unfavorable for military operations, an expedition would prove very costly, and accordingly it is reported that the Japanese Army hopes that the troublesome General will be eliminated in some other manner. They further realize that Feng himself would in all probability elude capture.
Meanwhile in Japan the question of Marshal Feng is gradually being brought before the public eye. … The public feels that the Kwantung army has been challenged, and it questions whether the “Manchukuo”-Japanese treaty does not obligate Japan to punish Feng despite the fact that he is without the present borders of “Manchukuo”. On July 26 an editorial in the Tokyo Asahi went so far as to state that “circumstances make it impossible for Japan and Manchukuo to wait” and again that “for the sake of the truce pact guaranteeing order in North China, punitive operations are badly needed”.
But more important than the question of whether Japanese military action against Feng will occur are two possibilities latent in the situation. In the first place the War Office in Tokyo is convinced that Feng is receiving money and supplies from Soviet Russia via Urga. If an expedition should be despatched and this fact confirmed, it is apparent that it will have a most deleterious effect on Soviet-Japanese relations, already strained*, and that the Japanese would be provided with a favorable opportunity for calling the [Page 382] Soviets to account. A crisis of some magnitude could hardly be avoided.
In the second place the present situation leads to the realization that the Japanese have been provided with a measure of provocation which might induce them to incorporate this region within the state of “Manchukuo”. It is an upland plateau suitable for grazing, includes the important town of Kalgan, and is so situated as to form an undesirable salient into the western flank of “Manchukuo”. The opinion has many times been expressed that Chahar would eventually be absorbed by “Manchukuo”, and the Department’s attention is accordingly invited to the possibility, occasioned by the activities of Marshal Feng, of the westward expansion of Japanese control in the not-distant future.
Respectfully yours,