761.93/1544: Telegram
The Ambassador in the Soviet Union (Bullitt) to the Secretary of State
[Received 1:05 p.m.]
191. Last night I reminded Dr. Yen, the Chinese Ambassador, that he had informed me in Peiping that he would not return to Moscow unless he had some very important, specific work to do here and that he had refrained from telling me what the work was. In strictest confidence he replied that he had brought to the Soviet Government from Chiang Kai-shek the statement that in case there should be a war between the Soviet Union and Japan the Soviet Government could count on the armed support of China. He added that the Soviet Government had taken this statement at its face value and had been so delighted that relations between the Soviet Union and China had been placed on an entirely new footing. He asserted that Bogomolov, Soviet Ambassador to China, had received instructions to collaborate with Chiang Kai-shek in every way possible.
Dr. Yen also stated that he had definite information that Japan was about to raise her Legation in China to an Embassy44 and expressed a most ardent desire that the United States should follow the same course.