Office of the Historian

893.515/527: Telegram

The Minister in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State

Peiping, April 13, 1935—3 p.m.
[Received April 13—11:40 a.m.]

149. My 140, April 5, 4 p.m.

1.
In conversation with the British Minister today he informed me that he had received while at Nanking a telegram from the Foreign [Page 572] Office informing him that a financial expert would shortly be appointed by the British Government to be attached to the British Legation here for the purpose of aiding and advising the Minister in the complicated financial questions in China which he would have to be concerned with in coming months and he was instructed to so inform the Chinese Government and his American, Japanese, and French colleagues. The Minister said that the telegram had also stated that the American, Japanese and French Governments were being informed of the proposal of the British Government.
2.
The Minister made no mention of any reference in the telegram to consultations with the Central Bank of China or others or to the formation of a technical group in the nature of a forum to assist in direct negotiations between Japan and China, and I inferred that the telegram which he received from the Foreign Office contained only the information described in paragraph 1 above. I summarized to him the information contained in the Department’s No. 99 of April 3, 5 p.m.
3.
My British colleague stated that Suma, Japanese Counselor of Legation at Nanking, informed him that the Japanese Foreign Office had received a telegram from London, the gist of which apparently was substantially the same as the first paragraph of your 99 of April 3, 5 p.m. and that Suma had stated that the Japanese had rejected the proposal because it did not seem to offer much hope of solving the situation and might give false hope to the Chinese. Cadogan stated that Suma’s statement was his first information regarding Sir Warren Fisher’s proposal and that the telegram from his Foreign Office was subsequently received and so different in purport that he so informed Suma.
Johnson