793.94/7415: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Lockhart) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 21—10:45 a.m.]
166. Embassy’s 163, November 20, 4 p.m. Activities in North China with regard to the intended regime appear to have been suspended presumably awaiting outcome of conversations at Nanking. Doihara and Sung are understood to be in Tientsin, the latter in seclusion while Han is still at Tsinan and Shang Chen at Paoting. The opinion gaining ground that Doihara perhaps went further in the North China question than the officers to whom he is supposed to be responsible intended or desired; that he was misled by Hsiao Chen-ying and other ambitious representatives of North China leaders with regard to the degree of agreement to which the latter [Page 434] could be brought; that their negotiations went considerably further than these leaders would accept unless forced to; and that Sung welcomed Chiang Kai-shek’s orders to abandon negotiations. What influence Tokyo may have had in the recent change in the situation is still unknown as are the next measures which Doihara and officers of his type may take to separate North China from Nanking.
Repeated to Nanking and Shanghai, by mail to Tokyo.