793.94/6983: Telegram

The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State

227. Reference second paragraph of Legation’s 224, May 28, 4 p.m., the following statement was issued early last night through Rengo by the Japanese Military Attaché’s office in Peiping.

“Four o’clock this afternoon Colonel Sakai, Chief of Staff of the Japanese Army in North China, accompanied by Major Takahashi, Military Attaché to the Japanese Embassy at Peiping, called on General Ho Ying-chin, chairman of the Peiping branch of the Military Council, and gave him a strong warning to the following effect in connection with the unsatisfactory conditions in North China.

Conspiracies carried into effect repeatedly in “Manchukuo” by persons directed by the Chinese authorities; assistance given by them to the Chinese volunteer forces near the Great Wall; and anti-Japanese terrorist activity at Tientsin are interests [sic] of destruction of the Tangku-Armistice Agreement and the reflection of Chiang Kai-shek’s anti-Japanese policy. What makes the situation very serious is the fact that these movements are set in motion with Tientsin and Peiping as the basis of operations by the mischief makers. Should this state of affairs be allowed to keep up the Japanese Army would be confronted with the necessity of again advancing beyond the Great Wall, and further of the necessity of including Tientsin and Peiping in the demilitarized zone.

The murder of the two Chinese editors Hu and Pai in the Japanese Concession is moreover an act of trampling down upon the Boxer Protocol,61 and out-and-out antiforeign action as well as a challenge to the Japanese Army. Should such action be allowed to be kept up untrammeled the Japanese Army would be forced to resort to self-defense action based on the right reserved by the armistice treaty, Chinese being held responsible for all its consequences.”

It is significant that today’s Peiping and Tientsin Times states that proposed removal of Provincial Government will be advanced from July 1 to June 3. It is stated that some officials are proceeding there today.

The same newspaper reports that group of Japanese soldiers fully armed and travelling in motor trucks visited the native city of Tientsin yesterday and made a halt before Hopeh Provincial Government building and photographed the entrance to the building.

There are increasing signs that the Japanese are utilizing Tientsin murders as a means of forcing resignation of Yu Hsueh-chung or at [Page 188] least hastening the removal of the Provincial Government to Paoting. There is a strong probability that the pressure involves removal of other officials from the political scene in the same Peiping area.

Repeated to Nanking; to Tientsin and Tokyo by mail.

For the Minister:
Lockhart