793.94/7308: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 17—12:10 p.m.]
71. Embassy’s 31, October 7, noon.5 Interest at the moment centers on the scheduled meeting of Japanese military and diplomatic officials [Page 366] in Shanghai on October 20 but current newspaper reports indicate that important decisions were reached at the present Dairen conference of October 13–14. The importance of the Dairen conference is demonstrated by the attendance of Major General Okamura, Major General Tada, Major General Isogai and Major General Itagaki, all of whom occupy important posts in the Japanese Army organization in China. According to Manchuria Daily News of October 14, Okamura presented in detail to the others Japan’s new Chinese policy alleged to have been formulated in Tokyo by the Ministries of War, Navy, Foreign Affairs, and Finance and received their full approval. A Reuter report of October 16 from Dairen states that it was decided at the conference to push forward plans for the conversion of North China into a field for Sino-Japanese cooperation and the Japanese Army would regard the Nanking Government as the first party with which negotiations should be conducted. The report continued: “It was also decided to request the Chinese Government to root up all causes of trouble in North China failing which the Japanese Army would insist on the divorcing of North China from Nanking’s control including withdrawal of Central Government troops and complete severance of financial relations.” Two opposing points of view appear to prevail in Chinese circles regarding Japanese program, (1) that Chiang Kai-shek has already acquiesced in the Japanese program for North China and that in any event the Japanese proposals will in the end be accepted; [(2)] that the Chinese will retreat no farther but will resist with military force if necessary. The supporters of the second view point out that the present disposition of troops in North China under the leadership of Sung Che-yuan and reorganized northwest China under Chiang Kai-shek is strategically favorable for the offering of resistance to an attack from beyond the Great Wall.
Colonel Takahashi, Military Attaché of the Japanese Embassy, is alleged to have expressed concern over these concentrations of Chinese troops and to have said that the Japanese Army would take steps to meet any menacing move emanating from that source. It is most likely that the concentration in the Northwest is due entirely to the communist shifting in that region and that the removal of Sung’s troops to Peiping means only that General Sung desires to have his troops within his own jurisdiction. As the situation now stands it seems reasonable to infer that the Japanese plan will depend primarily upon Sino-Japanese economic cooperation for the extension of Japan’s influence in North China.
Copy to Tokyo by mail.
- Not printed.↩