893.00/12735
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Counselor of Legation in China (Peck)99
- [Present:]
- Dr. Wang Ching-wei, President of the Executive Yuan and Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs.
- Mr. Li Sheng-wu, Director of the Department of General Affairs of the Foreign Office.
- Mr. Peck.
In the course of a confidential conversation Mr. Peck asked Dr. Wang whether the Chinese Government had received any recent information regarding the reported strained relations between Japan and the Soviet Union and the possible danger of an outbreak of war between them.
Dr. Wang said that the Chinese Government had not received any late information which would indicate that war between these two Powers would break out in the near future. He said that the information supplied to the Chinese Government was to the effect that the Military Party in Japan was anxious to provoke a war, but was restrained by the older and saner elements in the Government, especially by the counsels of Premier Saito and of the Minister of Finance, Mr. Takahashi. He said that the Chinese Government was informed that the Japanese Government was unwilling to initiate hostilities until it could find out what position would be taken by the American and British Governments in relation to the war. He said that it passed without saying that the Soviet Government, for its part, would never take any steps to provoke hostilities. Mr. Peck referred to the leading article in the North China Daily News of March 20, 1934, which referred [Page 84] to the rumored possibility that the Japanese Government might take over North China down to the Yellow River and transfer the so-called “Emperor of Manchukuo” to Peiping. Mr. Peck inquired whether Dr. Wang thought this report worth taking into consideration.
Dr. Wang said that he did not think the Japanese Government contemplated taking this step, but if war should break out between Japan and the Soviet Union, Japan would naturally blockade Chinese coastal ports and might seize certain Chinese railways.
Mr. Peck observed that he had heard a rumor to the effect that the interest of the Chinese Government in developing the Northwest, as evidenced by the creation of “The Sinkiang Reconstruction Commission” (Hsin Chiang Chien She Wei Yuan Hid) arose from a desire to prepare another exit from China to Europe to be used if the Japanese should effect this blockade of China’s coast and to be used, also, to give aid to the Soviet Union in such a conflict.
Dr. Wang derided this rumor. He said that even if Japan partially blockaded China’s ports, it would still be possible to maintain contact with the outside world through southern ports. In regard to the supposition that China might side with the Soviet Union in a Soviet-Japan conflict, Dr. Wang said that Dr. W. W. Yen, Chinese Ambassador in Moscow, had reported that the Soviet Government had discussed with him the possibility of a war between the Soviet Union and Japan and had prophesied that if it should take place, the American Government would intervene before the war reached a natural conclusion. The Soviet Government told Dr. Yen that it hoped that China would not show itself friendly to Japan at the time of such intervention. Dr. Wang said that in the event of a war between Japan and Soviet Russia, China must make every effort to be entirely neutral. At this moment Dr. Wang was called to another room, to answer a telephone call, and Mr. Peck observed to Mr. Li Sheng-wu that he, Mr. Peck, could not imagine why the Soviet Government found any reason for anticipating intervention by the American Government in the supposititious case of a war between Japan and the Soviet Union, unless it was thinking back to the Russo-Japanese War of 1905 and the part taken by President Theodore Roosevelt in bringing about the Portsmouth Conference.1
Dr. Wang pointed out that, in any event, the proposed development of the Northwest, i. e. Sinkiang, would be a matter of many years and bore no relation to the threatened hostilities. The building of a railroad over the immense distance between the present lines and Sinkiang would be a tremendous task and even a motor road could not be constructed in the immediate future. Mr. Peck, as an incidental observation, took exception to the last remark, saying that he [Page 85] had been told by a European in the employ of an American firm that the informant had himself travelled by motor car between Suiyuan and Tihua, capital of Sinkiang, and that the construction of a road would be a simple matter, making it possible to cover this distance in 12 days. Dr. Wang agreed that this might be the case, but pointed out that if the road were to be of material importance, there would have to be constructed the necessary appurtenances, such as repair shops, gasolene depots, etc.
- Copy transmitted to the Department by the Counselor of Legation in his despatch of March 22; received May 7.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1905, pp. 807 ff.↩