793.94/7439: Telegram
The Counselor of Embassy in China (Peck) to the Secretary of State
109. 1. An officer of the Embassy was confidentially informed this morning by the official quoted in our 94, November 20, 6 p.m. that: (1) the Chinese Government will not take any overt action against Yin Ju-keng’s “autonomous government” in East Hopei because it does not wish to be in the position of violating the Tangku Truce; (2) it is fully prepared, however, to resist by arms any interference with Chinese administration south of Hopei; (3) for this purpose the Government has (a) secretly placed Han Fu-chu in charge of military affairs for Shantung, Honan and Anhui, (b) has delivered to him $10,000,000 and 10,000,000 rounds of ammunition, and (c) has continued quietly to place troops at strategic points for his disposal in case of necessity, there being now almost 250,000 men in the provinces of Anhui, Chekiang and Kiangsu, about 90,000 in the “Nanking area” some 30,000 square kilometers in size, and over 30,000 along the Lunghai Railway. The informant stated that the Government would hold to the agreement made about November 19 between Ho Ying-chin and Japanese representatives (see our 94) that no Central Government troops would be sent north into Hopei providing the Japanese made no intramural invasion and he emphasized that none but defensive action was contemplated and then only in case of necessity.
2. He stated that the Government expected an expansion of the autonomy movement in North China, both Hsiao Chen-ying, Chahar Chairman, and Chin Te-chun, Peiping Mayor, were known to be furthering Japanese plans in this respect, and that the return of Sung Cheh-yuan and Doihara to Peiping reported in the press indicated that Sung was capitulating to the Japanese, there being nothing else that he could do.
3. The informant stated that the Ariyoshi-Chiang conversation of November 20 had been very unsatisfactory; that Suma was now pressing Hirota’s three-point program and was asking for “concrete proposals” from the Chinese Foreign Office to carry the program into effect. He said that the Chinese were giving noncommittal replies because they were not prepared to make any such proposals or to accept the program.
4. He stated that Ariyoshi and Suma had protested strongly to Chiang against the nationalization of silver, accusing the Chinese of conspiring with the British; that while the monetary program was [Page 444] in general progressing favorably, the Japanese had succeeded in preventing the transfer of silver from North China; and that while Yin Ju-keng had announced he would not interfere with customs and salt revenues, it was anticipated that with the expansion of the “autonomy movement” the revenues from North China amounting to 22% of the national revenue would be lost to the Government.
5. To Tokyo by mail.
- Telegram in two sections.↩