Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1935, The Far East, Volume III

893.71 Manchuria/77: Telegram

The Chargé in China ( Gauss ) to the Secretary of State

Peiping , January 1, 1935—noon.
[Received January 1—6:22 a.m.]

1. According to the press, an official of the Chinese Postal Administration and the Japanese Assistant Military Attaché at Peiping have announced that ordinary mail service between China and “Manchukuo” will be begun on January 10th and that parcel post and money order services will be inaugurated on February 1st. According to the Chinese statement, these services will be handled by “third parcel post offices” especially set up for that purpose. According to a usually reliable Japanese source however this report is for the purpose of ameliorating Chinese feeling and the services will be handled in the usual routine manner without any special organ. According to a report to [from?] both Chinese and Japanese sources, in order to meet Chinese wishes new stamps without the word “Manchukuo” on them will be issued for use on communications sent from “Manchukuo” to China. By the settlement of the postal question three of the allegedly secret clauses oral or written of the Tangku Truce of May 31, 1933,² have been fulfilled the other two having been resumption of through passenger traffic on the Peiping-Liaoning Railway and the establishment of Chinese customs houses along the Great Wall. According to a usually reliable Japanese source, only one more important secret clause remains to be fulfilled, namely, the establishment of aerial communication.

Although the successful fulfillment of three of the clauses of the Tangku Truce creates an appearance of tranquility in the situation in North China, actually the future of this area is still fraught with uncertainty. Among the causes for this uncertainty are the following factors:

1. There is little reason to believe that the Japanese will be satisfied with the meager advantages which the conclusion of these three questions gives to them or to “Manchukuo”.

2. There is little reason to believe that the Japanese military regard the proposal as other than stepping stones toward a substantial control of affairs in North China.

3. Major Tan Takahashi, Japanese Assistant Military Attaché at Nanking has been ordered to replace Lieutenant Colonel Shibayama at Peiping (see page 6 of Legation’s despatch 3127 of November 9, 1934³). Takahashi is said by a reliable Japanese to have been primarily responsible for the untoward developments of the Kuramoto⁴ affair of last June and to be a reactionary ultra patriotic officer.

4. General Huang Fu plans to go to Nanking within the next few days to assume the post of Minister of the Interior and there is uncertainty as to whether he will return, especially as it is said that the military consider that he has fulfilled his mission in North China and no longer want him here.

Gauss

2. For text of agreement, see ibid., p. 120.
3. Foreign Relations, 1934, vol. iii, p. 302.
4. Japanese student interpreter at the Nanking Consulate General, who disappeared in June 1934, but was subsequently found after an apparent attempt to commit suicide.