893.00/13206: Telegram
The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received September 6—10:25 a.m.]
463. My 457, September 5, 3 p.m. A statement to the press by Lieutenant Colonel Matsui, chief of the Japanese Mission at Kalgan apparently reveals the present attitude toward the Japanese of Sung-Che-yuan who is seemingly becoming the dominant Chinese figure in Northern Hopei and Chahar (that is, in the area in which the Japanese military is presumably most deeply interested at present). Matsui is reported to have informed foreign press correspondents at Tientsin that Sung has experienced a conversion to the Japanese point of view in North China political matters; that he is now satisfactory to the [Page 349] Japanese military in his new post; and that the Japanese intend to offer Sung inducements to remain friendly.
To Nanking and Tokyo by mail.