793.94/7038: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 13—2:50 p.m.]
270. General Ho Ying-chin accompanied by Mrs. Ho left Peiping at 3 a.m. this morning by special train [plane?]; responsible Chinese official called on me at 11 a.m. and presenting General Ho’s card stated that Ho had gone to Nanking to report on his negotiations with the Japanese and to seek instructions. He stated that the difficulty was that the Japanese did not seem to know what they wanted; that they had made certain oral demands, namely, the dismissal of Yu Hsueh-chung, the removal of all Kuomintang agents from the Province of Hopei, the departure of all Government troops from Hopei, the removal of the gendarmerie, and the abolishment of anti-Japanese organizations; and that all of these things had either been done or were in process of being carried out but that one never knew when the Japanese might not return with some new request.
This official said that the Japanese came to see Ho on June 11 and presented a draft of a document which they asked him to sign. The document itself was in four parts. Paragraph 1 set forth what the Chinese Government had done specifically to meet the desires of the Japanese. Paragraph 2 was an undertaking on the part of Ho that none of the people involved in the Japanese desires, namely, General Yu, the Kuomintang personnel, the Chinese Government armed forces, the gendarmerie, or anti-Japanese organizations, would return to this area. Paragraph 3 stated that the Government would appoint officials in this area who would be both pro-Japanese and pro-”Manchukuo.” Paragraph 4 agreed that the Japanese would be [Page 238] permitted to assign “inspectors” here presumably for the purpose of seeing that these terms were carried out. According to my informant, Ho refused to sign this document and stated to the Japanese officials that they had requested orally that the Chinese carry out certain of their desires voluntarily which the Chinese were in the process of doing and that he was in no position to sign any such document.
Residents of Peiping are highly apprehensive of political developments and some Chinese are leaving. There are many reports and rumors. These lend support to the opinion that the Japanese military is progressing toward elimination of control of North China by the National Government as well as support to the opinion that future developments will include a North China under pressure [by] Japanese or “traitor” Chinese guided by Japanese. Among the possible Chinese of this sort are mentioned Yen Hsi-shan and Sun Chuan-fang.76 Many emissaries are said to be visiting the former, while the latter’s name is mentioned because the new head of the public safety bureau at Tientsin Liu Yu-shu is a former officer of Sun who is in retirement at Tientsin. My informant of the first paragraph stated that the Japanese are inciting Liu Kuei-tang to make trouble. There are also rumors of a separatist movement among Chinese antagonistic to Chiang Kai-shek while [sic] since rumors have arisen as a result of the presence in Peiping during the past week of Prince Kung, cousin of Pu Yi, who is said to have assisted Doihara in the establishment of “Manchukuo.”
- Military Governor of Chekiang and Kiangsu until March 1927.↩