893.01 Manchuria/1195
The Chargé in China ( Gauss ) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 1.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Legation’s telegram No. 335 of August 3, 1934, 11 a.m., reporting that, when British troops in summer camp at Shanhaikwan were holding their accustomed maneuvers north of the Great Wall in an area which had always been regarded as part of Hopei Province, the British military authorities were requested by the Kwantung Army to obtain thereafter the permission of the Kwantung Army before holding maneuvers north of the Great Wall. It was further reported that the British military authorities were understood to have no intention at that time of accepting the Japanese position.
I now have the honor to bring to the attention of the Department a report under date November 5, 1934, in Reuter’s Foreign Service, that Sir John Simon, British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, when questioned in the House of Commons, stated that “as His Majesty’s Government did not desire to be drawn into a discussion of the juridical questions involved in the (Japanese) communication it had decided that the British troops at Shanhaikwan should abandon the practise of carrying out exercises beyond the Great Wall”.
Respectfully yours,