Office of the Historian

793.94/7092

The Chinese Foreign Office to the Chinese Legation74

Nanking, June 12, 1935.

Under the pretext that Peiping and Tientsin have been used as bases of operation against Japan and Manchuria and for such acts as the assassination of the two Chinese named Hu and Pei in the Japanese Concession in Tientsin, Colonel Sakai, representing the Japanese troops in Tientsin, and Colonel Takahashi, Japanese Assistant Military Attaché, verbally made upon General Ho Ying-ching, Minister of War, on May 29th, the following demands:

1.
That the demilitarized zone will be extended to include Peiping and Tientsin if these places continue to be used as bases of operation against Japan and Manchuria.
2.
That the Japanese army will take drastic action if there is a recurrence of incidents similar to the assassination of Hu and Pei.

After this conversation General Ho, on his own initiative, ordered the dissolution of several organizations to which the Japanese objected. The Central Government also on its own initiative changed the Chairman of the Hopei Provincial Government and the Mayor of Tientsin.

On June 9th, Colonel Sakai and others again made orally the following demands on General Ho, setting noon of the 12th as time limit for reply:

1.
The dissolution of all Kuomintang (National Party) branch offices in the Hopei Province,
2.
The withdrawal from Hopei of the 51st Army under General Yu Hsueh-chung,
3.
The withdrawal from Hopei of the two army divisions stationed there by the Central Government,
4.
Prohibition of all anti-Japanese agitations throughout China.

In the afternoon of the 10th, General Ho orally replied that action had been taken on all of the above-mentioned demands. Furthermore, the Central Party Headquarters had ordered the winding up of the Kuomintang branch offices in Hopei and the Central Government had reissued its decree concerning good neighborly relations. The [Page 233] incident was supposed, in the opinion of Chinese and foreign circles, to have been closed. On the following day (June 11th), even Mr. Okada, the Japanese Premier, reported to the Japanese Cabinet the settlement of the North China incident.

Notwithstanding this, Colonel Takahashi handed to General Ho on June 11th a draft memorandum, which was divided into two parts: the first part requiring China to agree to carry out the demands made by the Japanese army, and the second requiring China to agree to the following terms:

1.
No employment or reinstatement of officials and no revival of organizations unfavorable to Sino-Japanese relations shall be permitted,
2.
In the appointment of officials in the Hopei Provincial and Municipal Governments the wishes of the Japanese shall be followed,
3.
The Japanese are to supervise and inspect the execution of the above-mentioned terms,—with the request that General Ho have the draft copied, sealed, and delivered to the Japanese, to which General Ho refused. The situation is exceedingly critical at the present moment. We have done our utmost to save the situation. Whether or not the Japanese will resort to military action is not yet known.

  1. Translation of telegram left at the Department by the Chinese Minister, June 13.↩