793.94/7180
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 13.]
Sir: I have the honor to enclose a copy of a memorandum of a conversation99 which I had on June 18, 1935, with Mr. Edward Lepin, Military Attaché of the Soviet Embassy, during which he expressed the opinion that the five northern provinces would be divested before the end of the year of any authority of Nanking; that the Japanese had missed their opportunity in 1932 with regard to Russia; and that, if Russia were forced to fight, she would fight on foreign soil. I gathered the impression from his statements that it was his opinion that, if territory lost by China to the Japanese fell to Russia as a result of a Russo-Japanese war, it could not be argued that Soviet Russia was therefore either politically ambitious or acquisitive.
Respectfully yours,
- Not printed.↩