793.94/6986: Telegram
The Ambassador in Japan (Grew) to the Secretary of State
[Received May 31—10:36 a.m.]
115. 1. Press reports substantiated by the War Office indicate that certain military demands, the details of which are not stated, have been made on the Chinese Government by the Japanese military authorities in Peiping and perhaps Nanking as well. The Japanese state that they have evidence that the Nationalist Government has instigated violations of the Tangku Truce and disturbances in Manchuria. The demands are said to include the dismissal of General Yu Hsueh-chung, Chairman of the Hopei Provincial Government, the withdrawal of his and other Nationalist troops from the Tientsin-Peiping area, and the suppression of anti-Japanese activities, including the incitement of disturbances in “Manchukuo”. The Japanese Army is believed to envisage the inclusion of Tientsin and Peiping in an enlarged demilitarized zone.
2. The Kwantung Army will be reenforced during the summer by a division and a cavalry brigade to be stationed in the vicinity of Mukden but the scattered Japanese brigade in Jehol has not been increased. The Japanese Army apparently believes that the Chinese will accede in a satisfactory measure to the Japanese demands without the use of force. Presumably the Japanese Army is determined as a minimum to eliminate from the vicinity of Manchuria all supporters of the Young Marshal.62
3. My British colleague, on the basis of his sources of information, is inclined to regard this situation as ominous, having in mind the suspicious and recently openly hostile attitude of certain sections of the Japanese Army toward the efforts of the Foreign Office to bring about a “reconciliation” with China, and his impression that these military elements are becoming increasingly restive at government control. The Embassy, including the Military Attaché, does not at present find good grounds for apprehension of grave or critical developments.
Repeated to Peiping.
- Chang Hsueh-liang.↩