793.94/7045: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 14—3:10 p.m.]
275. No known major developments have occurred in this area during the past 24 hours.
Great uneasiness continues to exist in Peiping. Chinese officials express apprehension that administration of North China will be put in the hands of Chinese opposed to Nanking. However, the difficulty of obtaining accurate information from either Japanese or Chinese sources makes an accurate and full account of day-to-day developments impossible. Chinese officials here profess to know little of what is going on.
There is a considerable number of troops at Kupehkou and some have advanced to Miyün. The Chinese press state that there are 300 at Miyün; Takahashi admits that “some” are there, claiming that their presence is due to inadequacy of accommodations at Kupehkou.
Military sources report that one Japanese mixed brigade of four or five thousand is at Shanhaikwan and that there are eight empty trains there also. Japanese replacements said to number 1,700 have arrived at Tientsin and Takahashi is authority for the statement that old troops will leave when tension has ceased there.
Takahashi has stated that the Chahar incident is the only major incident remaining unsettled; that demands have not yet been formulated; and that it has not been decided to whom the demands will be presented.
Reverend Winans of American Methodist Mission at Changli reports that on June 11 Japanese military opened a hole in the wall of the mission compound at Shanhaikwan and proceeded to stable 120 horses. Only Chinese are living in compound. Matter was taken up by Winans with commander of Japanese troops at Shanhaikwan who stated that horses would be removed and that it was not realized that property belonged to American mission. The matter has been brought to the attention of Japanese consular authorities at Tientsin by the Consulate General.
Repeated to Nanking.