793.94/6842: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in China (Gauss)
30. Your 40, January 28, 1 p.m. and previous, and Tokyo’s 17, January 29, 6 p.m. The Department commends Peck for his alertness. It is gratified by the promptitude with which the Legation and the Embassy have made available to the Department information and [Page 33] comment helpful toward making an estimate of current reports of Sino-Japanese negotiations and of possible future developments.
The Department confidently expects that officers in the field will continue attentively and unremittingly to follow events and to report promptly by telegraph materials likely to clarify our knowledge of the existing situation and facilitate anticipation or understanding by us of developments, furnishing whenever possible interpretative comment. In the foregoing connection, all concerned should view denials by interested parties with a reasonable degree of objective skepticism, assuming that there may be desire by such parties either to prevent premature disclosure of facts or to put out information in such manner as to promote the accomplishment of ends in view.
In association with nationals of China or Japan such officers should refrain from making expressions of opinion, and in association with other private nationals they should adopt an attitude of caution, exercising care not to subscribe to or cultivate any impression that the American Government is either indifferent to or unduly apprehensive over the possibilities and implications of developments in this situation.
Repeat to Nanking as Dept’s No. 7; repeat also to Tokyo as Department’s 12.